Last week, Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, the Leader of Hounslow, and Councillor Katherine Dunne, the Lead Member for Climate, Environment and Transport Strategy at Hounslow welcomed Mete Coban MBE, the Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy, potential investors, and delivery partners to Hounslow to learn about its ambitious plans to decarbonise the borough and make it more resilient to the impact of climate change.
Published: Thursday, 5th December 2024
Invited guests visited development sites in Feltham and learned about the Council’s proposed plans to transform some of their housing estates into net-zero neighbourhoods.
As part of the plans, Hounslow Council is working alongside the Cities Commission for Climate Investment (3Ci) to develop their innovative Net Zero Neighbourhood programme. 3Ci specialise in supporting local authorities to secure the long-term finance and support for achieving net zero.
The site visit was an opportunity to share the plans and opportunities in Hounslow and included a guided walk around the Feltham and Cranford as a potential Net Zero Neighbourhood.
Within these neighbourhoods, there will be a focus on improving energy efficiency for homes and public buildings through retrofit, and using retrofit as a catalyst for undertaking improvements in the public spaces, diversifying the functions and uses of existing green spaces, and promoting access to sustainable travel options.
The Council is exploring this approach with the aim to create warmer, cheaper to run homes in more resilient neighbourhoods, whilst also reducing borough wide emissions.
Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, The Leader of Hounslow Council, said:
“Hounslow Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and made a commitment to achieve net zero for the council, reduce wider borough emissions, and ensure we are resilient to the impacts of climate change. However, we cannot tackle the climate crisis alone. To make a real impact, we must move projects at pace, and we need the funding to back these plans. This site visit was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our progress to date and future plans with potential partners across investment, built environment, infrastructure providers and, our communities”
Councillor Katherine Dunne, Lead Member for Climate, Environment and Transport Strategy at Hounslow Council, opened the event:
“Our Net Zero Neighbourhood programme will help us make significant steps towards retrofitting homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run, and reducing carbon emissions. This pioneering initiative places residents and communities at its core by adopting a collaborative community research model. Six trained community researchers led the effort, co-designing communication and research plans, facilitating workshops, and analysing data. Through three resident panel workshops, the voices of 50 residents were heard, providing invaluable insights that have shaped a robust support system and laid a strong foundation for the programme’s success, ensuring it reflects the real needs and priorities of the community.”
To find out more about Hounslow Council’s Net Zero Neighbourhoods programme.
