In This Month's Newsletter:
Environmental Costs and Benefits of New Housing Development
Appraisal Guidance Published with Homes England
Creative Socials: Painting Nature
30 Paintings for 30 Years at eftec
Reflections from Our Summer Interns
Environmental Costs and Benefits of New Housing Development:
Appraisal Guidance Published with Homes England
Homes England is the government's housing and regeneration agency. It has been engaging in economic research to show how affordable, quality homes in well-designed places are key to improving people's lives.
Back in 2021, we published an economic valuation study with Homes England that showed the social and environmental impacts of different brownfield development options. That report is available here.
This month, Homes England published a guidance paper and Excel™ tool for understanding & incorporating environmental impacts developed by eftec and SQW, which will be used when appraising new housing development.
The tool is called ENHAT - the Environmental impact of New Housing development Appraisal Tool. It is designed to enable appraisal practitioners who are not specialists in non-market valuation to identify and measure the economic value of the relevant environmental impacts of construction and occupation. It includes a broad range of inputs and evidence including land size, location, type of development, population information, housing energy performance, and additional features such as recreation benefits. Outputs are produced with a mix of physical evidence (e.g. carbon sequestration rates), modelled evidence (e.g. future energy use), and valuation evidence (e.g. willingness to pay for recreation features).
Mike Wiltishire, Director of Strategy, Research, Analysis and Sponsorship at Homes England, said on LinkedIn:
“Our aim in publishing these papers is to support all our partners to be able to demonstrate the wider benefits of planned housing and regeneration interventions - in line with Green Book and MHCLG requirements.”
Creative Socials: Painting Nature
30 Paintings for 30 Years of eftec Project
We’ve kept our 30 paintings for 30 years of eftec project under wraps but now we have some pieces to show, we want to share it with you.
Led by our in-house artist, Victoria, the team are spending an evening a month working on a collaborative installation piece made of paintings depicting the environment and our relationships with it: the goal is to represent both the work of eftec and our personal impressions of nature.
Not only are these events good fun, but they also remind us of why we value nature and improves the quality of our work as a result.
Our Summer Interns' Reflections
This summer we welcome three interns to support the team: Suhela, William, and Daisy. They offered support on projects and administrative work and got stuck in with our social events and the company culture. Below are each of their reflections at the end of their time with us:
Suhela: ‘I enjoyed being exposed to the many projects at eftec because I was actively learning and applying what I learnt. I especially liked working alongside the intelligent and personable people here. There was always a very positive culture about being able to ask questions and learn on the job which is very unique and special to eftec.’
William: ‘I have really enjoyed working at eftec, especially within the valuation team. It was particularly insightful to see how stated and revealed preference methods are applied in a consulting context. I appreciated how creativity was welcomed - brainstorming and thinking broadly about non-market valuation using the latest approaches was encouraged.”
Daisy: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship at eftec, getting involved in a large variety of projects across service areas and being able to see environmental valuation and natural capital accounting which were taught in my undergraduate degree being applied in practice. I also enjoyed learning about chemicals policy and understanding how cost benefit analysis is used in this context.“
We wish them the best for their future endeavours: Suhela will be completing her undergraduate degree at the LSE in 2025, while William and Daisy will be starting their Masters Degrees at LSE and Oxford, respectively next month. Well done all and stay in touch!
We are always open to hearing prospective applications for future internships. Get in touch at [email protected].
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