Planning and Strategy in the North East

The North East has many examples of best practice for planning and strategy. In 1999 the North East was the first region to publish a Regional Energy Strategy and a number of Local Authorities have been very active in developing strategy and policy to support the uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Northumberland County Council

Northumberland County Council have adopted a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Strategy for the county. The aim of the document is to promote and develop renewable energy and energy efficiency across Northumberland to encourage economic growth and environmental action…
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Durham County Council

In the 1995 Durham published its Renewable Energy Strategy. Several demonstration projects have been implemented, and most significantly England's first wind turbine on a school site connected to the national grid. The County Council is currently working with other schools on the installation of wind turbines, photovoltaic cells and is working with a museum to install a heat-pump scheme using mine water to heat the building.

The Energy Management Unit at County Hall is responsible for managing the energy use in approximately 500 council properties, with a combined annual energy bill of over £3.5 million. The County Council has a good record on energy efficiency.
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Energy for a New Century – an energy strategy for the North East

In 1999 the North East published the first regional energy strategy in the UK. Written by The Northern Energy Initiative and funded partly through the European Regional Development Fund the document provided the region with clear and achievable goals in relation to energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy use.
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North East Regional Spatial Strategy

Sustainable energy use is a key aspect of the North East’s Regional Spatial Strategy. It is recognised that there is a direct correlation between economic growth and energy use and therefore as the region’s economy grows so does the demand for energy. The RSS sets out policies that aim to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption primarily through use of ‘more sustainable practices in new development’.

The RSS refers to ‘Building in Sustainability: a guide to sustainable construction and development in the North East’ and the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Eco Homes as tools to inform developers about sustainable development.

POLICY 41 – SUSTAINABLE ENERGY USE

Strategies, plans and programmes should set a positive policy framework to guide the location, design and layout of development and require the inclusion of measures to improve energy efficiency and energy conservation to minimise energy use, with new development achieving BREEAM and Eco Homes ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ ratings.

Renewable Energy Generation is also proposed as an important element in decoupling the link between economic growth and energy use. The RSS encourages the need for renewable energy generation to be ‘embodied in the design and implementation of new developments’.

POLICY 42 – RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION

Strategies, plans and programmes should:

• Facilitate the generation of at least 10% of the region’s consumption  of electricity from renewable sources within the region by 2010 (454 MW installed capacity);
• Aspire to further increase renewable electricity generation to achieve 20% of regional consumption by 2020; and 
• Set local level size thresholds for new developments to have embedded within them a minimum of 10% energy supply from renewable sources.

This policy framework should facilitate the achievement of the following minimum sub regional targets to 2010:

• Northumberland 212MW
• Durham   82MW
• Tyne & Wear 22MW
• Tees Valley  138MW