We understand the challenge local authorities face — you’re expected to use your expertise to identify the most effective low-carbon growth options, while balancing location, housing density, environmental planning policies, and ensuring local services meet the new demands from growth. It’s tough, right?

This is where our innovative Net-zero Spatial Planning Tool comes in. It’s your powerful new ally in making smart, informed decisions about sustainable growth and reducing carbon emissions generated by the future population of your plan area.

• Insights into low-carbon growth strategies for local planning authorities.

• Explore how our Net-zero Spatial Planning Tool calculates the carbon impacts for new developments, including housing, transportation, and social infrastructure.

• Learn from real-world applications in the Forest of Dean, Cotswold District Council, and West Oxfordshire.

• A demo of dynamic visual outputs

Local Authority Planning officers, sustainability officers, and decision-makers aiming to align their Local Plan with net-zero goals.

Grasping the opportunity of spatial carbon modelling

Carbon emissions targets have emerged as a massive influencer in local plan making as it relates to spatial planning duties. Ensuring your Local Plan helps achieve your authority’s commitments is more important than ever before.

Having worked with dozens of authorities recently, we understand the analysis can be complex and time consuming. That is why we led the development of a new tool to make the process time-efficient and robust.

With a grant from Innovate UK, we worked with Space Syntax to further develop our Net-zero Spatial Planning Tool. The tool uses an evidence-backed data model to estimate the carbon emissions from new housing development, including the associated social infrastructure that is required to support that housing, such as schools and libraries.

We have now integrated a new transport model that more accurately predicts transport carbon induced through new development. The modelled outputs have been proven instrumental in forming a draft Local Plan that aligns with local carbon reduction targets.  

The project was supported by three local planning authorities, who played a crucial role in shaping the tool's key features, providing invaluable insights for improving overall usability and maximising the value derived from the data. The tool is now being used in real-time by West Oxfordshire, Forest of Dean and Cotswold District Council.

The timing of the new tool’s launch is particularly useful in the context of the dynamic nature of central government housing allocations. The tool allows for the testing of multiple scenarios, giving authorities a valuable data point related to their ability to meet new targets and stay within their carbon budgets.