RedBook’s carbon promise gives clients planning advantage

When RedBook announced its commitment to make all its clients’ projects carbon neutral, it did not expect the response it got. Clients were immediately enthusiastic, but that was not surprising as RedBook undertook to pay itself for clients’ entire carbon offset. What took us aback was the reaction from veteran planning consultants.

They seized on the promise, instantly seeing its value in helping persuade planning authorities to grant consent for new houses and other building projects.

Temperamentally, planning consultants are the most considered of professionals and their advice is often laden with wary caveats. So their sudden excitement was all the more remarkable.

One of the foremost rural planning consultants, responsible for winning planning consent for some of England’s biggest building projects – and himself formerly head of a local authority’s planning department – remarked: ‘Increasingly the planning system and those interacting with it are focused on the ‘green agenda’ and sustainability considerations, especially for sites are in rural areas. Demonstrating carbon neutrality, is a tangible benefit. And in my view, RedBook’s commitment to ensuring all projects it is involved in are carbon neutral is a very valuable one when it comes to promoting development in the countryside, such as replacement houses or new houses under NPPF Paragraph 80.’ He did not actually say it, but ‘whoopee!’ was not far from his lips.