Climate Innovation District - low carbon suburb to be built

A so-called Climate Innovation District is to be constructed in central Leeds with low carbon homes at its heart.

The developer Citu is behind the idea, which will involve the regeneration of large swathes of Leeds city centre on both banks of the River Aire.

Once complete the CID will be a community of more than 1,000 new low carbon, timber-framed homes alongside ‘climate conscious’ leisure, offices, a primary school, care home and a state-of-the-art facility where the buildings are manufactured.

A spokesperson for Together, a specialist lender which has just allocated £20m towards the project, says: “Citu’s ambition  to tackle climate change by creating one of the UK’s largest sustainable urban developments … an amazing vision.”

Once completed, the latest phase will include 55 homes and 87 apartments ranging from one-bedroom flats with a floor space of up to 549 square feet to four bedroom family homes of up to 1,406 square feet.

The homes will have no gas boilers, instead relying on insulation, an ‘air-tight thermal envelope’ and a Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation system that re-cycles heat from household appliances whilst bringing in fresh air.

A non-profit making Community Interest Company will run the development, and every resident will get a vote on decisions. 

Buyers of a property on the scheme automatically become a member of the CIC; residents can decide on what new renewable technology to invest in, and how they want to spend the earnings generated by feed in tariffs from the solar panels. The only rule is that all money generated must remain within the development.