A group of housing developers, building professionals and other industry supporters aim to transform the UK housing sector to ensure it creates and maintains Good Homes for all. The Good Homes Alliance (GHA) have their own definition of what makes a Good Home and assist their members to build and monitor homes that are sustainable in the broadest sense. All GHA Leaders and Developer Members have signed up to meet GHA Standard, which means that their homes must be low energy, healthy and have proven performance. All Members also sign up to the GHA Charter, which covers broader aspects of social and community performance.

The GHA provides education, research & guidance and technical support, and also engages in active policy and promotion activities to ensure that market conditions encourage and incentivise developers to take a more sustainable approach.

As part of this ongoing service a number of events are planned over the next few weeks. On September 20th there will be a site visit to the Hanham Hall development near Bristol. Transforming an old hospital site and part of the HCA’s Carbon Challenge, Hanham Hall consists of 185 Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 homes and the renovation of the Grade II* listed Hall. About a third, 61 homes are affordable. With the new definition of zero carbon, the planned community energy system has gone but the commitment to monitoring the development and conducting post occupancy evaluation of residents remains.

On October 16th a visit is planned to the Community in a Cube at Middlehaven, which was developed by BioRegional Quintain. RiversideOne, designed by FAT architects with masterplanning by Stirling Prize-winning architect Will Alsop. Like Bioregional's One Brighton, this development was built to enable BioRegional sustainability philosophy, One Planet Living. The residential complex consists of 80 apartments and meets EcoHomes Excellent standard.

And on September 25th the GHA is running the Green Deal for Real seminar in London. The event aims to increase understanding of how the Green Deal will operate, what the risks are, and what tools are available for assessment and delivery. The full-day conference addresses three key themes:
Green Deal operation and opportunities
Reducing the risks associated with energy savings in refurbishment
Tools to assist in decision making on refurbishment technologies

Key speakers will be Dr David Strong - David Strong Consulting and Chair of DECC's Green Deal installer Accreditation and Qualification Ministerial Advisory Forum, Helen Martin - DECC, Neil May - NBT and GHA, Mark Dowson & Adam Poole - Buro Happold, Jonathan Davis - CORE, Dr Jez Wingfield - Willmott Dixon, Owen Daggett - Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, Chris Sanders and Paul Baker - Glasgow Caledonian University, Phillip Morris - The Centre for Sustainable Energy and Pete Halsall - GHA chair.

This event will be of interest to developers, housebuilders, RSLs, architects, energy assessors and other client groups who are looking to engage with the Green Deal framework.