New homes should be zero carbon, Labour's shadow chancellor has said on a visit to Manchester to see the UK's 'first' new carbon neutral social housing. Rachel Reeves said Manchester's efforts to make its housing more environmentally-friendly and bring down energy bills is 'inspiring'.
The Leeds MP was taken on a tour of Ancoats where she was shown new developments which are believed to be the first of their kind in the country. Work has begun on 68 new affordable homes, of which 45 will be social housing, in a 'low carbon' development at Downley Drive in New Islington.
The Labour frontbencher also saw the former Ancoats Dispensary in Old Mill Street which will be home to 39 apartments available for 'affordable rent'. Housing association Great Places, which is behind the two schemes, say they will support the city's low carbon agenda with the new 'high-quality' homes.
Greater Manchester has committed to building 30,000 carbon neutral homes for social rent by 2038 with all new housing to be of this standard by 2028. In Manchester, the council plans to retrofit at least a third of social housing in the city by 2032, making them more energy efficient and bringing bills down.
But speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after her tour, the shadow chancellor said new homes should be built like this in the first place. She said: "We now need to be building new homes to the zero carbon standards because if you're not, then you're going to have to come back and retrofit those in the future.
"That's totally inefficient and a total waste of money. You need to be building homes to that high standard, but also to get our energy bills down and to boost our energy security so we're not importing so much Russian and Middle Eastern gas."
The shadow chancellor said Labour would invest in the 19 million homes across the country which do not meet basic energy performance standards and set up a publicly-owned green energy company, creating new jobs.
Welcoming the Labour MP to Manchester, council leader Bev Craig explained that the city needs to build 10,000 new affordable homes in the next 10 years. She told the shadow chancellor that Manchester Living Rent would be capped at the Local Housing Allowance level, making it affordable to benefit claimants.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham also spoke of new low carbon social housing developments under way in Salford, Trafford and Wigan. He told the Labour MP: "We'll create the template that others can follow."
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