Greenwich Millennium Village (GMV), London is the first of the Government’s Millennium Communities and part of the Thames Gateway regeneration project. The scheme is being developed in a consortium between Taylor Wimpey and one other developer in partnership with English Partnerships (now HCA). As a millennium Community GMV has set many industry standards, including becoming the first major UK development to achieve EcoHomes ‘Excellent’.

The enhanced planning application includes 2,938 dwellings together with offices, light industrial, retail and a community centre and nursery. Overall affordable housing provision is 40% (circa 1,000 mixed tenure units within the new enhanced masterplan). Construction began in 1999 and the anticipated completion date is 2014.

Design

Key design elements of the scheme include:

• All phases incorporate units that have been designed to meet the Lifetime Homes criteria and the scheme has been designed to allow disabled access in and around the buildings.
• Buildings are grouped into communities arranged around a village green and newly created lake.
• Green corridors connect the Village to the River Thames and the rest of the Greenwich Peninsula.
• The unique building design employs a steel frame construction.

Sustainability Targets

English Partnerships set the GMV development team innovation targets to ensure that the momentum for innovation in the development industry is maintained. Each new phase sets increasingly ambitious targets. To date the majority of targets for phases I and II have been met and some exceeded including:

• Reducing water consumption (target 30% - achieved)
• Reducing construction waste (target 50% - achievement 76%)
• Thermal Insulation (target 10% better than national standards – achieved)
• EcoHomes Excellent (achieved). GMV was the first major UK development to achieve the Building Research Establishment’s “Eco Homes Excellent” rating.

Performance Standards set for Phases III-V include:

• CO2 emissions are not to exceed 20kgCO2/m2
• 10% of the fuel for the CHP will be from renewable sources using Biomass.
• Building envelope performance to achieve a Heat Loss Co-efficient below 1.75
• 20% of materials by value sourced from reused/recycled material
• 25% of material by weight supplied within 50 mile radius of GMV site
• Utilise insulation materials that use zero ozone depleting substance