New council homes for Kingston

These homes will be a new breed of council homes - with sustainability and accessibility at their heart.

Climate Friendly

Since we declared a climate emergency in 2019, delivering our ambitious climate goals has been at the heart of all that we do. Delivering much-needed new homes for our residents and working towards achieving carbon neutrality are two goals that can go hand in hand. 

Here are just a few of the ways these new homes will be climate friendly and empower residents to live more sustainably:

• Well-designed homes: Reducing carbon emissions is considered right from the start of the design process. We have designed our homes to be energy efficient without requiring additional expensive technology. This is known as a ‘Fabric First Approach’.  
• Efficient homes: Using this approach, every aspect of the homes will be considered to make them as efficient as possible - such as the direction the house faces, and ensuring that no homes only have windows facing in one direction..
• Local building materials: Where possible, our contractors will use local materials to support the local economy and reduce transportation pollution. Building materials are also selected based on environmental impact.
• Improvements to local natural environment: All of our sites will look for ways to improve the local area and provide a benefit for existing residents. This includes  new playgrounds, improved access for residents to existing green spaces, and enhancing the biodiversity and landscaping of our estates. For example, across the current sites we will be planting over 75 new trees and creating two new play areas.

Accessible homes

We need different types of homes to offer choice and accessibility to the right housing in the right places. We also need to provide homes that support an ageing population and those who access our social care services.

10% of the homes in this programme will be built to Part M4(3) standards to meet the needs of residents who use wheelchairs. All of the remaining homes will be built to M4(2) standards. This means that they will meet a range of different housing needs and will be capable of adaptation as residents’ needs change over time. 

Where there is parking on site, a number of spaces will also be reserved for residents with a disability.