Jayne Lomas is currently Head of Millennium Communities and Project Manager for the Carbon Challenge within English Partnerships.
The Millennium Communities Programme was launched at the end of the 1990s by the Deputy Prime Minister as a series of exemplar developments bringing together new ways of planning, designing and constructing homes to facilitate a more sustainable way of living. The Programme is now delivering seven inspiring new places to live across the country. It aims to demonstrate that energy efficient, environmentally responsible development is achievable regardless of geographic location. The Programme is on target to deliver over 9,000 homes built to Eco-Homes 'Excellent' standard. With around 1,000 of these homes currently occupied it is vital that we capture and share the views of the residents of these EcoHomes excellent dwellings finding out whether their new home lives up to expectations.
The Carbon Challenge is a new initiative launched by government in February 2007. Introducing a number of English Partnerships sites to the market with exceptionally demanding briefs, the Challenge calls on developers not only to achieve Level 6 of the Government's Code for Sustainable Homes, in addition to meeting the aspirations of quality embedded in English Partnerships quality standards, but still remain affordable and accessible to a wide range of the public. Clearly this will require collaborative design, supply chain efficiencies and cutting edge technological advances. Further sites will be introduced to the Challenge following a selection process from local authorities and RDA's. Developers will be asked to share their lessons learned and evaluate their successes with ongoing monitoring in occupation.
Jayne is a qualified architect with a varied experience in the housing sector ' having spent the last decade working for an RSL in Manchester. Building on a personal interest in the modern methods agenda and using those technologies to ensure that homes perform at the highest level in terms of energy efficiency, the Carbon Challenge is now providing an excellent opportunity to take the next step and link in with renewable technologies to meet zero carbon aspirations.
