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The Government appears to have painted itself into a corner with its housebuilding and net zero pledges.Very few expect it to build 1.5 million new homes during this electoral term or to achieve its carbon reduction targets.Yet the funding, targets and inspection regime Whitehall and Westminster have devised for councils to adhere to are preventing the sector from giving the Government even a fighting chance of getting near to their promises.Nonetheless, councils are still trying to deliver as many new energy- efficient homes for their communities as possible – even if it means weaving through the obstacles central government is putting in their path.In a demonstration of the versatility that best epitomises the strength local government often provides in such challenges, Brentwood and Rochford councils in Essex are applying common sense to make the best of the poor hand ministers have dealt them.Lauren Stretch, the director of housing for the two authorities – which share a senior management team – has steered away from driving toward the headline-grabbing total net zero housing projects favoured by some authorities, so existing housing tenants get to share in the prospect of lower energy bills.‘We are doing some net zero,' she explains. ‘But we've equally scaled a lot of the ambitious plans back because our view was the money that could be saved could be invested into our existing stock to do upgrades to bring these homes up to EPC C (the energy performance rating expected by government).‘It's not as fancy as a net carbon zero home, but actually, everybody wins.'Stretch also highlights the benefit gap between building new homes to standard regulations and pushing for net zero.‘At EPC C the energy saving is already there, even if you just go to building regulations. So, if you're going to go to net zero, it's a lot more money for not a huge gain.'‘In Brentwood I'm building 145 new homes and Homes England want councils to build more, but when the housing regulator comes to assess me, I don't get any extra kudos because I'm building new homes, they're only interested in my existing stock.‘I don't think it's necessarily the wrong place to be, but that's two arms of government not joining up.‘I get that the Government want me to build homes, but actually I don't get applauded for building new homes, but I get clobbered if my existing ones are no good.'She does, however, recognise that government is beginning to appreciate this disconnect. But the disconnect in the Government's policy thinking only starts there.Stretch, along with housing directors nationwide, is battling to do the best she can to minimise carbon and maximise energy-efficient initiatives despite getting minimal assistance from Westminster.She says there is only a tiny proportion of the overall build cost for housing projects coming from the Government, with the majority having to be handled by the local authority, and there is no extra money to help councils build to net zero.Originally, Brentwood and Rochford had six sites they intended to build to net zero but, as Stretch explains: ‘We can't fill that viability gap. The more money we spend on doing that, the less money we have available for our existing stock.With rising construction and maintenance costs and increasing housing demand pressures, Stretch is having to do a continuous balancing act with the councils' Housing Revenue Account.She embodies the realism that senior housing officers now have to deploy to do the best they can for their communities.Through applying different approaches across the authorities' housing programme Stretch is testing and learning what the councils can scale up and apply across their entire housing stock.While she sees the value of having some net zero new housing developments providing learning both locally and nationally about this much sought after future, Stretch views the prospect of applying it across all new developments as an impossibility in current circumstances.‘It's too expensive and it doesn't give the gains that warrant the extra money. You could be spending that extra money to improve the lives of many more people [by] a reasonable amount.'This is a philosophy Brentwood and Rochford are actively applying, but it is not one you can imagine hearing coming out of net zero secretary Ed Miliband's mouth.Realism, after all, does not make for great manifesto pledges.

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HOUSING

The net zero realist

By Paul Marinko | 11 June 2026

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