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Turley supports Torbay Regeneration Partnership in their participation in helping define the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard

Our Sustainability and ESG team is proud to have supported Torbay Council’s Regeneration Partnership, a collaboration between Willmott Dixon and Milligan, in their participation in the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard [1](The Standard) Pilot Programme.

Version 1 of The Standard has just been released and provides a unified industry approach to defining net zero aligned built assets in accordance with the UK's climate targets. The Pilot Version of The Standard was launched in September 2024, with the purpose of collecting feedback on applying The Standard to live projects via surveys, webinars and discussion forums. 205 projects were selected for the Pilot Testing Programme, representing all 13 sectors covered by The Standard.

Union Square, a Torbay Regeneration Partnership redevelopment of a former shopping centre into a mixed-use town centre living scheme, was selected to participate in the pilot, providing data on applying the standard. 

Union Square, which is one of multiple sites in the Regeneration Partnership, represented a unique opportunity for a project at early phases of design to contribute to The Standard. After assessing the potential performance of the design at an early stage, we provided feedback to The Standard covering its general usability, clarity, and achievability of targets.

Version 1 of The Standard has now been released, with key updates that directly responded to pilot participant's feedback including:

• Allowing independent claims between landlords and tenants (delineation)
• Validity check at Practical Completion
• Equivalence of other standards and accreditation
• Adjustments to the limits to ensure they remain challenging but achievable 

Following publication of Version 1 of The Standard, Fiona Lomas-Holt, Head of Sustainability & ESG, said:

"Our involvement in the technical groups for The Standard gave us a deep understanding of its requirements, enabling us to support the Torbay Regeneration Partnership in interpreting and applying them to aim for net zero alignment."

Alongside the Torbay Regeneration Partnership, we look forward to progressing to the next stages of the project and monitoring ongoing performance against The Standard. 

21 April 2026

[1] The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard