A model for 21st-century living

Rosie Boycott shows why she feels that Great Bow Yard represents a new model for living in a more sustainable way.

By 2015 all new housing in Britain is supposed to be carbon zero, but right now only 2% of any new builds actually approach this requirement. All the more reason, then, to welcome a newly opened development of 12 houses in Somerset, accommodating 30 people who together contribute 3 tonnes less CO2 per annum than equivalent households.

 

The development is in Langport on the Somerset Levels, once blessed by two railway stations - axed because the future lay with the car. This short-sighted view is sadly illustrated by modern Langport, where the sheer weight of traffic on the main street makes walking a nightmare. A Tesco store and trucks add to the congestion and danger as well as undermining small businesses which should sustain the high street.

 

The new development by the Ecos Trust, a West Country eco-developer, lies along the banks of the river Parrett, where four flats and eight houses stand around a communal garden. The adjacent warehouse has been converted into offices, a cafe and a cinema-cum-meeting room, and last Friday it opened its doors for the first time, completing a vision all too rare in Britain today.

 

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has just awarded the development one of its gold Building for Life awards. This, says CABE professor Jeremy Gould, \"is not just about subjective aesthetic style but rather good design, which creates places with character and environmental considerations. We want to find places where people are proud to live.\"

 

CABE's national audit of the design quality of new private housing in Britain found that four out of five new homes built in the last five years were simply not good enough and 29% were so badly designed that they should have been refused planning permission.

 

These depressing statistics make Great Bow Yard all the more important. The building work began in 2003 and by the end of last year all properties had been sold. The wooden cladding has weathered attractively and the development looks welcoming. But what is it like to live in a house fitted with pretty much every eco-friendly device known? John and Liz White, both in their 60s, moved in at the end of last year. They'd previously lived in an isolated rural region and wanted to reduce their living costs and live a car-free and low-carbon life in a community. They paid £249,000 for their house and reckon that the eco-additions added about 10% to the cost.

 

Their house is upside down, something that apparently deterred some buyers. The ground floor (spare bedroom and hallway with copious cupboards) is cool, but the temperature rises as we climb the stairs, passing their bedroom with a spectacular view across the garden and the river, to the open-plan living room on the top floor.

 

Their heating primarily comes from gas but the solar panels on the roof generate electricity, and though all the buildings are connected to both mains supply gas and electricity, they actually use very little of either. Liz showed me recent bills. From April 30 to June 7, their gas bill was just £3.66; their green electricity bill for May was just £13. They currently pay council tax at band D rates of £1,300 a year but the residents applied to have their band lowered, claiming that, as a development, their carbon footprint was lower than normal. The council responded by jacking their rate up to band E (£1,715). The case goes to tribunal next Wednesday and they hope to be reclassified as band C (£1,000).

 

Flora Alwen, 33, moved in 18 months ago with her husband Billy, 40, who owns a travelling circus, and their three-year-old daughter Hattie. Their three-bedroom house is part of a separate terrace across the garden; behind it is a utility area which houses a rainwater collection tank feeding the washing machines and lavatories. There are three big recycling bins for glass, tin and paper. Cardboard and plastic are collected in another bin and then driven - the residents take it in turn - to a tip in nearby Somerton as the council won't collect it. All green kitchen waste goes on to the communal compost pile.

 

The Alwens got a mortgage for their £290,000 home through the Halifax, which offered no discount for eco-living, unlike the Ecology Building Society, which now gives discounted rates for homes with a lower carbon footprint.

 

The community works - not just at the level of taking care of the neighbour's cat, but also in providing a sense of purpose to life. \"Sustainable design is not just about our homes, but how we live our lives within them,\" says Jeremy Gould. \"You can create communities if you build with that in mind.\"

 

Great Bow Yard, he believes, is a model for 21st-century living. Given this, the local authority's stance about the council tax is depressing. This development is exactly what we should be encouraging and that encouragement needs to start where it counts: with cash. We already reward motorists who drive low-emission cars, so why not extend this to low-emission houses? The government predicts that we need 3m new homes by 2020, making the outcome of next weeks's appeal vital to anyone concerned about global warming.

 

Indeed, we need to go even further: central and local governments should make grants to offset the extra building costs of such developments. The 12 homes at Langport answer many modern needs: they're virtually car-free, almost carbon-free and they provide residents with the support of a strong community.

 

Rosie Boycott is a broadcaster and journalist. This article first appeared in the Guardian on 7 November 2007.