Removing the requirement for developments to assess the potential of solar, wind and biomass energy, requiring only an assessment of the potential for combined heat and power in very large schemes, seems a rather regressive step, particularly given the requirement for all new housing developments to be 'zero carbon' by 2016: most commercially available combined heat and power technologies are fuelled by gas and so contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions only by improving the efficiency of energy generation. It is suggested that the Council consider that the requirement to assess the potential for low carbon and renewable technologies is retained in the policy (without making reference to specific technologies, in order to retain the widest possible scope of technological solutions). However, we support the reduction of the threshold for requiring an energy strategy from 100 dwellings to 10 dwellings.