PARISH COUNCIL REPORT JANUARY 2025
HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT VOUCHER
Homeowners in Suffolk will be able to apply for a voucher that covers the cost of a
professional retrofit assessment on their home property. Retrofit refers to any
improvement work on an existing building to improve its energy efficiency.
These assessments are the first step towards making homes more energy-efficient,
lowering energy bills and reducing their carbon footprints.
Residents who own a home with an Energy Performance Certificate band of below
C can take up the offer of a voucher to claim an assessment from a qualified
retrofit assessor.
The assessor will identify the best measures that could be deployed in their home
to improve energy efficiency, for example insulation, low carbon heating and energy
generation and ventilation repairs.
The voucher will entitle them to a cost-free assessment if the size of their property
is smaller than 98m2, with a maximum additional charge of just £30 for properties
bigger than this.
Homeowners can check to see if their property has an existing Energy Certificate
with an EPC band and record of their property size via the GOV.UK website.
There is no obligation to take up the recommendations of the retrofit assessment
report, but a new council loan will provide up to £15,000 at 0% interest to those
interested in making efficiency upgrades.
Residents can apply for the vouchers online at
www.suffolkenergyassessment.co.uk and vouchers will be distributed on a first-
come, first-served basis.
Babergh District Council is helping to fund this initiative. Please let people know
about this if you can. And perhaps offer to help if residents can’t apply online.

In a frantic couple of days in December, the government hit local authorities with a
new National Planning Policy Framework and a White Paper on English Devolution.
Here is what we know.
THE NEW NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY FRAMEWORK.
It is now official that Babergh will need to build 775 houses per year from 2026 under
the Labour Government’s mission to build 1.5m houses in this parliamentary term, a
mission to be led by the private sector and allegedly to tackle the housing crisis.
That is an increase in Babergh’s housebuilding of 80%. And, to make things worse,
under the new NPPF, we cannot use our over-delivery in previous years to help meet
this target.

As Enstein did not say “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and
over again and expecting different results.”.
Insane and unrealistic on so many levels. However Babergh must work with this
madness and so must our Neighbourhood Plan. We have done the right thing by
allocating sites in our village for new homes. Otherwise we will simply have them
imposed on us as Babergh tries to meet the new targets.

DEVOLUTION
The government has put forward two proposals to move power away from
Westminster into the hands of local authorities. There is a White Paper.
Directly Elected Mayors
The government wants mayors in place across the country – but for larger areas
than the traditional counties . For us, this would likely mean a mayor ( and a mayoral
authority) covering both Norfolk and Suffolk – taking a strategic approach and
providing a single person to represent our region. The mayor would have powers
and funding – some devolved down from central government – to move forward the
government’s agenda. Transport infrastructure is one area where a mayor could
make significant progress , rather than having to wait for decisions from Whitehall.
We can expect elections for Mayors in 2026. There seems to be general consensus
in Norfolk and Suffolk that, if we do not go along with this, we will not benefit from
the advantages it will bring.
Local Government Reform
This proposal is much more controversial. Currently in Suffolk we have Suffolk
County Council, Ipswich Borough Council and four District Councils. The
government wants to replace this ‘two-tier’ system with Unitary Councils covering
around 500,000 or more residents .
The Unitary Councils would provide all the services currently delivered by the County
and District Councils. In a sense, one council doing everything could be a good
thing. We are all aware of the problems with Suffolk Highways who are able to
behave in an unresponsive manner – perhaps if they were in the same authority as
the planning authority, we might get a better service and there might be more joined
up thinking. However, the disadvantage is that the council becomes more remote
from its residents and there will be fewer councillors to take on residents’ concerns.
As the leader of Mid Suffolk District Council, Andy Mellen has said:
“In a single unitary council , each councillor would be responsible for many
thousands of electors and would struggle to focus on local individual needs
alongside their other duties. Being a councillor would be pretty much a full – time role
narrowing down those who would be able to take it on and reducing the diversity of
representation .”

His solution is smaller unitary councils, closer to their residents and reflecting their
specific challenges. Suffolk and Norfolk are potentially on the priority list for the new
structures so change may come in the next couple of years.
Sallie.davies@babergh.gov.uk