A key challenge to introducing any housing standards, both in grant funded housing or in the open market, must be for them to be implemented in a cost effective way in order to ensure their success in volume. Any process of introducing change (like the Code for Sustainable Homes, for example) needs to incorporate a means of managing cost to a realistic level. During the early introduction of the Code, some examplar schemes became hugely expensive, but there were projects which took a different approach.

1. A key challenge to introducing any housing standards, both
in grant funded housing or in the open market, must be for
them to be implemented in a cost effective way in order to
ensure their success in volume.
Any process of introducing change (like the Code for
Sustainable Homes, for example) needs to incorporate a
means of managing cost to a realistic level. During the early
introduction of the Code, some examplar schemes became
hugely expensive, but there were projects which took a
different approach. Here‟s what it cost to build the
GreenGauge homes at Lingwood:
The construction cost of the fifteen GreenGauge Homes at
Lingwood was £1.618m excluding fees and VAT. This was
the amount tendered by the winning contractor, Youngs
Homes, in Q42006 and included all renewable technologies
and Rain Water Harvesting. The project trialled three
different renewable combinations against a „control‟ group of
highly insulated homes. Technologies included PVs, solar
collectors, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Sun Spaces and
Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery, all included in
the cost.
Of the £1.618m construction cost, £540,000 was a Housing
Corporation Grant, £147,000 a grant from Broadland District
Council and a further £16,216.91 was provided by the Low
Carbon Buildings Programme.
In addition, Carbon Connections funded the Monitoring
programme to the tune of £56,000. The project (which was
completed just before the introduction of the Code for
Sustainable Homes) was awarded EcoHomes Excellent,
and after completion was evaluated under the Code,
confirming the same construction should also meet Level 4.
Sustainable
Comparison with a similar scheme
Let us compare the Build Cost of Lingwood against a
Conventional Ecohomes Very Good scheme of the same
Housing:
period. “Very Good” was the requirement for grant funding
of affordable housing assessed in 2006, so it constitutes the
required level at the time and a reasonable benchmark.
Five ways to make it
Affordable
The Total Scheme Cost of 15 homes at Lingwood cost
£108k a unit (including fees, post planning). A scheme of
the same period in the village of Bawdeswell, of 8 houses
and with no renewables (which received Ecohomes Very
Good) had a Total Scheme Cost of approximately £850k
equating to £106k a unit. Both schemes were built by the
same contractor.
In actual cost terms for the client the difference in the
cost to build Lingwood was therefore just £2,000 a unit.
Everyone is building sustainable
housing now, but can they do it
affordably? Here’s how we built an So how can this be possible – surely the renewable
affordable housing scheme above technologies cost more than this? Well yes, they did, but it
current energy standards yet within was possible to manage the cost of introducing them. Turn
the UK’s affordable housing grant over for five ways to avoid your project cost spiraling out of
funding structure. control.
11a Princes Street, Ipswich IP1 1PH T: 01473 257474 design@barefootgilles.com
Barefoot & Gilles
163-164 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford CM2 0LD T: 01245 351400
14 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0DP T: 020 7336 7944 www.barefootgilles.com

2. 1. Don’t invent anything
As soon as you start inventing new components,
whatever they are, you have to incorporate the costs
of the development, and of bespoke components, into
your build. Why bother? The climate change agenda
was already far enough advanced in 2006/7 for us to
choose with relative success a range of tried and
tested technologies. The more tested the technology
is, the less likely it is to go wrong or involve you in
additional expenditure to make it work.
The homes at Lingwood are built using a standard
Space4 timber frame, with additional insulation
applied. We could have developed a new construction
4. Consider Everything Carefully
system, but several were already on the market with a
Thinking of using a particular element in your
good reputation and perfectly adequate for our needs.
scheme? Ask yourself, Do you need it? What for? If
you do, how can you make the best use of it?
2. Don’t change things that don’t need
changing At Lingwood there was an opportunity to generate
Just because you‟re doing something new you don‟t wind energy, and micro generation was very popular
have to do everything new. Our affordable housing is in 2006/7. But how would we do this? A single turbine
developed along a standard housetype which, like the is more efficient than four singles, but it would be
technologies we used, was tried and tested, built on difficult to share energy (without storage) between
years of experience designing for RSLs. A standard four individual households. We were also convinced
housetype reduces the cost of frame production, and that PVs would generate more energy for the
yes, offsite manufacture keeps preliminary costs down householders for the same capital cost. Lower running
too. costs were an important objective of the project. When
a study demonstrated that the site was not suitable for
The layout for Lingwood is also very simple and wind energy generation, it was a simple step to
straightforward. Broadland District Council‟s planning choose PVs instead.
o f f ic e r i n i t i a l l y t h o u g h t i t wa s t o o u r b a n a n
arrangement, but was supportive when it was 5. Remember your Objectives
explained how all the houses needed to be South- Affordable housing needs to be affordable. The client
facing. As it turns out the site has a very strong sense RSL wants to be able to manage the housing easily.
of community, and a balance of outward and inward The contractor wants to be able to build it simply and
facing houses has helped encourage this. cost effectively, and we all want to repeat a successful
project with another.
Even the windows at Lingwood are simple Jeldwen
windows. They serve the purpose required by this Keeping sight of these objectives helps us make the
project. decisions which lead to a successful outcome.
3. Avoid indulging in fripperies
Building sustainable housing can easily become an
ex erc is e in outdoing one‟s c om petitor s . T he If you’re interested in learning more about
temptation is to make the housing look different,
the success of GreenGauge Homes, or how
introduce unique components, make the building
particularly photogenic to win competitions. So easily these techniques can transfer into your own
a small exercise can become someone‟s pet project. developments,
But pet projects cost money, and whilst there may be email us at design@barefootgilles.com or
benefit in PR, is this the intention? If you have a give Su Butcher a call on 07815 935 736.
longer term objective, think to the longer term.
11a Princes Street, Ipswich IP1 1PH T: 01473 257474 design@barefootgilles.com
Barefoot & Gilles
163-164 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford CM2 0LD T: 01245 351400
14 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0DP T: 020 7336 7944 www.barefootgilles.com