Context 161 - September 2019

4 C O N T E X T 1 6 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 variety of ways as I worked towards offering my conclusions. The awards scheme is open to the submission of outstanding items of taught coursework and the encouragement of best practice in raising standards. It also can greatly inspire those in the early stages of their careers. Course leaders and students alike are to be congratulated on the exceptional high level of all the submitted work that I reviewed. Having been involved in the development of conservation education and training over the past 50 years, it has been extremely gratifying for me to see how the award intentions have been honoured. To all involved I would say: well done.Your studies and choice of professional direction will offer you considerable satisfaction as you embark on a career as the next professional generation to hold responsibility for the future wellbeing of our remarkable historic building stock. To the IHBC I offer my appreciation of the commitment and ability to hold and arrange the Gus Astley Student Award Scheme, and to those 2018 AwardWinners I offer my sincere congratulations. Climate change and older buildings John Preston, STBA heritage chair and IHBC green panel, writes: Climate change challenges are ever more pressing, but help is at hand. My IHBC Guidance Note GN2019/3 ‘Climate Change and Older Buildings: key sources’ (http://ihbconline.co.uk/toolbox/ guidance_notes/index.html) was launched at the day school. The note focuses on works to buildings to reduce emissions (climate change mitigation). It gives what were live links to information and advice. But, as I highlighted in my presentation, the note was and is a point-in-time snapshot of a rapidly evolving situation. The weeks since the school have seen further important publications, some of which start to take on the implications of the government’s commitment to net- zero emissions by 2050. These are: •• The Committee on Climate Change’s 2019 Progress Reports on Reducing UK Emissions (https:// www.theccc.org.uk/publication/ reducing-uk-emissions-2019- progress-report-to-parliament/) and on Progress in Preparing for Climate Change (https:// www.theccc.org.uk/publication/ progress-in-preparing-for-climate- change-2019-progress-report-to- parliament/). The committee notes that ‘the government has delivered just one policy action out of 25 recommended by the committee in 2018.’ •• Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee 21st Report ‘Energy Efficiency: building towards net zero’ (https://publications. parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/ cmselect/cmbeis/1730/173002.htm) •• Decarbonisation of Homes in Wales Advisory Group report ‘Better Homes, Better Wales, Better World’ (https://gov.wales/ independent-review-decarbonising- welsh-homes-report). Issues raised in this report will be followed up in the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance ( STBA) autumn event ‘Deep Retrofit versus Decarbonisation; at Caerphilly Castle on 23 October (see www. stbauk.org ). Guidance Note GN 2019/3 only touches on adaptation to the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events. These were highlighted in the annual school Saturday tour of Southwell and the Dumbles (see Andrew Pettifor’s report, page 35) in relation to both natural flood management and impacts on buildings.We saw a real humdinger in terms of adaptation and difficult choices in Church Street, where a Grade II listed bridge has acted as a dam and exacerbated flooding of nearby listed buildings.Would you sacrifice a Grade II listed structure to safeguard others? GN 2019/3 does not include the key Standard PAS 2035/2030:2019, which was published just before the annual school. For more on this, see John Edwards’ article on the PAS (page 48), and his IHBC Guidance Note GN2019/4 ‘Retrofitting of Traditional Buildings’, also in the Toolbox and launched at the day school. The government (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) has held a series of consultation workshops prior to a formal consultation on the Private Rented Sector Trajectory to 2030. Look out for this consultation, and for the autumn consultation on review of Part L of the Building Regulations. As ever, issues will include the need for a tailored approach to traditional buildings; maintaining the Part L special consideration; and promotion of traditional building and repair skills, at scale, as an urgent priority. Make your voices heard! Manchester architects 1800–1940 The Biographical Dictionary of Greater Manchester Architects, 1800–1940 is live online at www. manchestervictorianarchitects. org.uk . It provides details of over 1,000 architects, 400 partnerships and 10,000 buildings. It is essentially a text-based resource dealing with architects known to have been born, trained, lived or worked in Greater Manchester between 1800 and 1940. The resource is searchable by name or location of architect, practice, or building. Architects based in the Greater Manchester area have their known works catalogued as fully as possible. Details of architects based elsewhere in the United Kingdom are included insofar as their commissions relate to the Greater Manchester area. The works of architects who were born or trained in Manchester but practised elsewhere in the UK, the Commonwealth and the USA are less comprehensively catalogued. Information is mainly based on contemporary newspaper reports and, from 1843, The Builder . Much detail has then been cross-referenced to civil records of births, marriages, deaths and census returns.