89 mixed-tenure highly energy efficient 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 bedroom houses and 2-bedroom bungalows are located with a 5-minute walk to Newport station, and a new walkway/cycle path connects to the local school.
Integrated design principles including suburban led placemaking, landscape-led open spaces and pedestrian friendly streets, supporting community cohesion. Hedgehog highways, bird and bat boxes help support local wildlife. Rainwater is attenuated onsite to mitigate local surface water impacts, and carefully designed acoustic fencing minimises noise from the neighbouring M11.
In conjunction with Octopus we developed a bespoke energy strategy, product specification (incorporating PV, storage batteries and air source heat pumps) and commissioning programme resulting in 100% of the homes qualifying for Octopus Energy’s ‘Zero Bills’ system, one of the first partnerships between an energy provider and housebuilder of its kind.
In the UK, the average SAP rating for a new home is circa 85/100. At Hollymead Square, the houses are predicted to achieve up to 113/100 depending on the typology, compared with the Predicted Energy Assessment. This equates to an A-rating EPC, and up to 105% CO2 reduction compared with the Building Regulations Approved Document Part L 2021. This approach surpasses the emerging 2025 Future Homes Standard.
Octopus are supporting customers' understanding of the installed technologies as part of the project, energy usage and environmental data will be logged, to understand residents’ experience and the performance of home technologies in occupation. Lessons learned will be applied to future projects providing energy security and net zero.
