Camden approves first Neighbourhood Space for Kentish Town

Our Neighbourhood Spaces Programme will transform vacant or under used council buildings into vibrant, financially self-sustaining hubs for innovation, collaboration and community action, bringing residents, community organisations and local businesses together to help shape their neighbourhoods and help deliver inclusive economic growth.

Across Camden, our residents are already tackling issues like food insecurity, climate emergency, loneliness and youth unemployment. Neighbourhood Spaces like this will help unite these efforts, creating places where assets, ideas and skills can come together to drive positive, neighbourhood led change focused on the We Make Camden missions and challenges.

This Neighbourhood Space is a significant step towards our Climate Action Plan commitment to reducing carbon emissions across our own property and aims to meet the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard.

The project is taking a whole life carbon approach, considering not only the operational emissions of the building, but the carbon contained and produced from construction materials and maintenance over the life of the building.

To support this, we have commissioned specialists in low carbon design, to analyse and guide our decisions that will minimise carbon across the building’s entire lifecycle. This approach aims to drastically improve the buildings energy performance, promote the use of regenerative materials and prioritise material reuse, lowering carbon emissions while reducing long-term operating costs, resulting in a financially and environmentally building fit for the future.