External wall insulation

[PeterSimpson]

I am now involved in trying to persuade our council Planning Department that external wall insulation can be used to make our early 1900 solid brick walled properties look attractive without ruining the character of the streets and areas where they predominate.
I am hoping that organisations that have succesfully carried out such projects would be willing to provide me with evidence (photographic and possibly supporting documents) of before and after the work has been carried out.
Despite these properties being in the poorest areas, it seems, currently, that aesthetics are more important than the thermal efficiency of these homes and they need persuading to allow such work.
Any assistance that I can obtain, to help alleviate Planning's fears would be appreciated.

[KellyLee]

Hi Peter
There is some really good work going on in Camden and also in Islington in getting opposing sides together to produce planning policy guidance on this topic. In addition, I know that my contacts at Rockwool have a lot of information that they can provide to planning departments to highlight the visual changes that come about following the insulation - both in terms of photos, supporting documents etc - and I know that they were working very closely with Bath Council's planning department on the different types of finishes available.
If you wanted to drop me an email (kelly.lee@britishgas.co.uk) I'd be happy to link you in with my contacts.
Kelly

[Peter.Chisnall]

Hi Peter, I can get my colleagues at Climate Energy Solutions to provide you with some evidence about their Wall Reform product. Please send me your contact details to peter.chisnall@climateenergy.org.uk and I'll forward it on.

[shood]

Hi Peter,

We are faced with a significant number of solid walled properties in Rushcliffe and are concerned about planning restrictions.
However for brick faced properties you may find the render which Wetherby offer could provide a solution?
see link:
http://www.wbs-ltd.co.uk/renders.htm
It was in fact a planner who referred me to this render system.

We have completed external cladding on several BISF homes using the Permarock system which have transformed their appearance totally, you should find photos etc. on the Westville website, http://www.westvilleinsulation.co.uk

Amber Valley District Council have been working contructively with the planners, I can pass on details if you email shood@rushcliffe.gov.uk

[ALEO Admin]

Hi Peter

Below is a response that was emailed through to me by Adrian Smith from Rossendale Borough Council:

I was copied into the e-mail about planning authorities resisting external wall cladding on aesthetic grounds. This is of great relevance to us as around a third of our stock is solid wall terrace, nearly all of which are stone built or faced. This raises a number of related issues as stone has a different permeability to brick. As a planner who is also co-ordinator for Green Issues in the Council I would be very interested in what responses you receive as we are not aware of any good practice on external cladding locally.

At a recent meeting of the Lancashire Energy group to discuss the Green Deal a big issue was external cladding and the danger of “pepper-potting” individual terrace properties or one of a pair of semis. As many on the group are housing professionals rather than professionals aesthetic appearance is not just a concern of planners. It was our view that there needs to be some form of “enveloping” or area wide approach to this issue. How an area looks is important to its existing and potential residents as well as the population at large. It is therefore important to look not just at energy efficiency but overall performance and public acceptability.

Conservation Areas and listed buildings have separate planning regulations that would need to be taken into account. Organisations such as the IHBC (Institute of Historic Building Conservation) have raised a number of concerns about applying standard solutions to older buildings that would not allow them to “breathe” properly and would affect both the fabric and historic identity. Some experimental work has been done on properties in the Whitefield Conservation Area in Nelson (Pendle BC) as part of an English Heritage initiative to try and identify ways to address this but as far as I know this doesn’t include external wall cladding. It’s worth contacting their conservation officer Paul Crowther (see e-mail below).

As well as the above it is important to look at the technical performance of the product. Will it need replacing after a number of years or become unsightly? Will it be cost effective or cause households to go into further fuel poverty. In some cases it may be the case that the economic life of the property may be limited as well. While applauding the intent to improve the energy efficiency of older properties I think this is a whole issue that requires much further consideration and co-ordinated action before we make mistakes that are difficult to resolve.

Cheers

Adrian Smith
Forward Planning
Rossendale Borough Council

[Peter.Chisnall]

The attachments might interest you and be a way through this. We have some clever software where you can alter an image to show how it will look after external insulation and finish have been added.

I've had to compress the pictures and I can only upload a maximum of 3.

Conatct me if you want any more details.

No points to those who say it looks better before and also it is not my spelling!!!

Peter

[preeve]

Following Peter's request, I spoke with a CESP manager from one of the utilities.

He commented that they have experienced varied responses from planning departments whilst trying to undertake EWI as part of CESP programmes. He believes the planning rules surrounding EWI is something that really needs to be sorted out prior to the launch of Green Deal and ECO.

We discussed the merits of brick slip cladding, which could be a solution to the problem, but the costs of this are often prohibitive and there have been some concerns over installation problems and weathering faults. He advised that their experiences have been reported to Ofgem as part of their CESP reporting.

[John]

I am now involved in trying to persuade our council Planning Department that external wall insulation can be used to make our early 1900 solid brick walled properties look attractive without ruining the character of the streets and areas where they predominate.
I am hoping that organisations that have succesfully carried out such projects would be willing to provide me with evidence (photographic and possibly supporting documents) of before and after the work has been carried out.
Despite these properties being in the poorest areas, it seems, currently, that aesthetics are more important than the thermal efficiency of these homes and they need persuading to allow such work.
Any assistance that I can obtain, to help alleviate Planning's fears would be appreciated.

Hi Peter,

were you successful in getting planning permission for your external wall insulation?

If you didn't get anywhere previously, please get in touch and i would be happy to see if there's any support we can offer as a major installer of EWI solutions. Alternatively, you could consider IWI or a blend of both.

Best regards,

John
john.eghan@markgroup.co.uk