In 2021, Manchester Climate Change Partnership developed and adopted a Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon Buildings. It sets out a proposal that to meet the city’s plan to be Zero Carbon by 2038, all new buildings in the city from 2023 should be Zero Carbon.  

A Task Group of private, public and third sector representatives was brought together to develop the policy. Chaired by Civic Engineers, supported by the UK Green Building Council and involved representatives from the City Council. It also explored the enabling issues of Finance and Skills with key contributions from the banking and education sector. It included a number of progressive developer partners including Muse, Urban Splash and Bruntwood and I am confident that there is an appetite amongst the development community to respond positively to the proposed ‘Manchester Standard’.

The Group has recently been reinstated to help integrate net zero new build standards into Manchester’s Local Plan which is being updated in 2023. The scope of this ambition includes residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings, plus operational and embodied carbon across the whole life cycle.