Ringwood Town Council is working towards upping its green credentials – and needs the help of local people.

Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan group is seeking the views of local people about Energy Efficient Buildings for the town, working towards the Government target of ‘net zero’ by 2050 by increasing energy efficiency in our homes.

Large developers generally build housing to the minimum standards allowed by regulators. Even those homes built to the current 2013 Building Regulations standards will need to be modified with additional measures in order to achieve the ‘net zero’ aspiration.

The Plan Group feel it would be better to build homes with these measures in place or to use alternative designs that are intrinsically more energy efficient. It is much easier to build homes better in the first place.

Town Mayor, Tony Ring said: “Housing in Ringwood generally has low EPC ratings of C or below. It will take a big effort to bring these homes up to higher standards. We should not be adding to the problem by allowing developers to build new homes here with anything less than excellent energy efficiency. To do otherwise will simply make a big problem even bigger.”

Complete the survey at www.ringwoodnp.org.uk/environment.