Awards Published: 25 May 2023 
Colville Road Shortlisted for Best Development at Unlock Net Zero Live Awards
Designed to integrate seamlessly into the existing local area, Colville Road Phase 2 has replaced 24 post-war council homes with 67 truly affordable sustainable council homes and apartments for local residents. Prior to starting on site, CIP revised the energy strategy to protect our most vulnerable tenants and to support the council’s response to the climate emergency that it declared in 2019.
Although we had planning for Colville Road Phase 2, we went back to the ‘drawing board’ and looked at how we could deliver sustainable council homes without increasing the project budget. Gas heating was replaced with communal air source heat pumps offset by PV panels, with the aim of minimising residents’ energy bills. Triple glazing has also been included for increased thermal performance along with wider external walls, and additional insulation in the floors and roof. We are proud of what we created at Colville Road Phase 2, as it has set a standard for the council homes we are delivering across all our future developments. As a partnership, we have now committed that all our new developments will be gas free, ahead of the Government’s proposals to make all new build properties gas-free from 2025.Tom Hill, Managing Director at The Hill Group
The Unlock Net Zero awards seek to recognise and champion progress on the journey to decarbonisation for the UK housing sector and the supply chain that supports it.
We are delighted to be shortlisted in these awards which recognise organisations which are providing solutions for low carbon housing and championing the progress to decarbonisation. The environmental impact of our new developments and the inefficiencies of older council homes are an essential part of our development plan and the new sustainable homes we have created at Colville Road really set a precedent in the design of council homes going forward in the UK.Cllr Gerri Bird, Executive Councillor for Housing at Cambridge City Council and CIP board member
The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on the 27th June alongside Housing 2023.