From left: Campaigners Pia Rainey, Anne-Marie Huby, Leyla Boulton and Dorit Young

THE Town Hall has been urged to allow more residents to retrofit their Grade II-listed homes with double glazed windows, heat pumps, and solar panels

Campaigners have collected more than 2,000 signatures, which means they have secured a 15-minute council debate on the issue later this year.

Islington has declared a climate emergency and given itself until 2030 to make the borough carbon neutral, but it has been warned that it needs a planning system that allows more retrofit measures.

Leyla Boulton, one of the petition organisers who lives in Gibson Square, said: “This is not a campaign for rich people in big houses. This is how we build the future that we all need when it comes to our bills, our climate, and our heritage. This is why you need clear standards, like a climate action retrofit guide [which we have developed] that will tell you: these are the things you need to avoid so you don’t get mould, you don’t get moisture. This is why we need a holistic approach where nobody is excluded.”

Anne-Marie Huby, who lives in Arlington Square, added: “We met a lot of people who said, ‘you know, I’m lucky enough to have double glazing in my block, but my cousin, my brother, my sister have mould’. This campaign touches on the environment, but it also touches on decent housing as well. It’s about comfort, and it’s about safety.”

The campaigners say they want a more transparent planning application system.

Ms Huby said: “We really want to urge the council to move from a system which is opaque, where you try your luck, you hire an architect at great cost, you file your application, and you hope that on that day, a planning officer will like what you’re proposing.”

She added: “What we want instead is something much more explicitly set out upfront, which would tell people precisely what good double glazing would look like, or the conditions under which solar panels should be allowed, where heat pumps ought to be placed.”

Labour’s Rowena Champion, Islington’s environment lead councillor, said: “We’ve developed a Simple Guide to Planning for the Retrofitting of Carbon Reduction Measures, which will be published in mid-March 2023. We also offer a free, 15-minute duty planner appointment, so that residents and small businesses can find out whether or not planning permission or listed building consent is needed. We’re also introducing a more intensive and free-of-charge pre-application advice service for residents and small businesses in the summer.”

She added the council was developing a new planning document in its net zero carbon ambition and said it would “make it easier for local people and businesses to install carbon-reducing measures, such as solar panels, on their buildings”.