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ID sylw: 107331

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Stratford-on-Avon District Social Inclusion Partnership

Broadly in agreement with Draft Policy Direction 23 but consider that there is room for outlining additional steps that could be considered to fully enable improvements to energy efficiency and the sensitive retrofitting of energy efficiency measures.

Planning issues related to the installation of energy efficiency measures in conservation areas and requiring listed building consent presents significant hurdles both for ‘able to pay’ residents, and for government grant retrofit programmes delivered by the Local Authorities. Residents may desire to reduce their energy consumption but are unsure which measures to prioritise and may be put off by confusion around permitted development guidelines
and the time and expense required to obtain permissions.

Options for supporting residents in sensitively retrofitting energy efficiency measures and the appropriate use of micro-renewables include:

• Providing more information for residents online to clearly explain permitted development within conservation areas and permissions required for conservation areas and listed building in the form of web pages/fact sheets (example attached)

• Prioritising applications relating to retrofitting energy efficiency measures or clean heat measures

• Providing a dedicated planning officer to provide advice to residents who are thinking of retrofitting energy efficiency measures or clean heat measures

• Offering a free, paid, or sliding-scale cost pre-application advice service for listed buildings, buildings of solid wall or traditional construction, and buildings within conservation areas relating to the installation of energy efficiency or clean heat measures (example attached)

• Offering free, paid, or sliding-scale cost ‘fast-track’ application processing for listed buildings, buildings of solid wall or traditional construction, and buildings within conservation areas relating to the installation of energy efficiency or clean heat measures.