Persimmon completes second zero carbon home pilot in Wiltshire

Published by

Peter Davison

Persimmon Homes' zero carbon home pilot

Housebuilder Persimmon Homes has completed construction on its second zero carbon home pilot.

The latest initiative, located on site at its Wessex region at Malmesbury, represents the second of its kind undertaken by Persimmon within the UK.

The company says it marks a significant stride in its sustainability efforts, following its inaugural zero carbon home project in York last year.

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The zero carbon home, situated on the housebuilder’s Backbridge Farm development, incorporates a range of advanced features including solar panels, an air source heat pump system coupled with a hot water cylinder, and the integration of a waste water heat recovery system. The home is built using Persimmon’s latest Space4 timber frame wall panel.

The house has achieved an Energy Performance Certificate rating of A and comes with additional loft insulation and thermally efficient walls and floors. An electric vehicle charging point is also installed at the property.

The initiative is part of a series of projects by Persimmon and forms a pivotal component of their Pathway to Net Zero, which includes two ambitious targets: the delivery of zero carbon homes in use by 2030 and to be zero carbon in operations by 2040.

The insights gathered from this project will be used by Persimmon to enhance its technological and construction methodologies, to ensure it can build homes to meet the housing need while supporting sustainable living in a cost-effective way for customers.

Persimmon Homes’ group technical director, Duncan Shaw, said: “We are delighted to have finished construction on the second pilot of Persimmon’s zero carbon home at our Backbridge Farm development in Malmesbury.

“Our vision is to be Britain’s leading homebuilder and we have an important responsibility to reduce our environmental impact through our operations, supply chain and the homes and communities we build.

“We want to ensure our customers can live more sustainably in a cost-effective way in the years to come, and this project will provide vital insight into how we can build such homes at scale, including the end results for homeowners.

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“Persimmon is grateful to the numerous contractors that have helped us to deliver this home, and to Wiltshire Council and Malmesbury Town Council for working collaboratively to bring affordable zero carbon homes one step closer for local people.”

In crafting Persimmon's zero carbon home in Malmesbury, a number of local contractors were involved in a collaborative effort of skilled trades and companies.

The contractors included Conlon (groundworks), Stenner Bricklaying (exterior), H&B Carpenters (interior), Kennett (roof), Heatwise (plumbing), Clarkson Evans (electrical and PV solar), Fastglobe (mastic work), SMP (paintwork), JA Wicks (wall tiling), PE Board (dryling), GM Kitchens, TW Landscapes, while KMC Cleaners and Construction Site Scaffolding readied the home for occupancy, which is due to take place shortly.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.