A SWINDON environmental group expressed concerns over the eco-friendliness of a £50m housing redevelopment in Walcot.

Nationwide won approval for an ambitious renovation of the old Oakfield Campus near Marlowe Avenue, which includes 239 new homes, a children’s play area, a community meeting space and links to nearby amenities.

But the town’s branch of Extinction Rebellion claims that a lack of solar panels and the use of gas boilers in homes on the site will cause environmental issues in the future.

XR member Bill Janson said: “Insulating housing properly and green energy solutions are not only good for our planet but good for residents.

The Oakfield development will not have any solar panels because Nationwide deems them unsightly and too expensive.

“Ground-source heat pumps that extract heat from the ground are apparently too expensive and too much bother to design.

“Air source heat pumps that extract heat from the air like a reverse fridge are deemed too noisy, despite the fact that modern pumps only 40 decibels, which is equivalent to the sound level in a library.

“Nationwide specifies gas boilers that will be illegal by 2025 and will probably have to be ripped out and replaced by air-source heat pumps.

“They compute that the savings they are making on CO2 emissions will be 1.5 per cent compared to houses built to 2013 building standards.

“This is a joke when you consider that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018 said that we had to reduce our CO2 emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030 to have any hope of keeping to 2C.

“It will be expensive for residents and cost a lot in heating bills as well as being bad for the environment.

“This project will saddle Swindon with carbon emissions and high heating bills for years to come. This is a legacy project for Nationwide that will leave Swindon with the wrong legacy.

“It seems Nationwide are acting like any other fat cat property developer, building not fit for purpose housing with no thought for our children’s future and the environment they will inherit.”

The project aims to create homes that are focused on energy efficiency, light and space with high ceilings, big windows and terraces made with traditional materials.

"It has been designed to encourage a greater sense of community between neighbours of all ages.

Construction is expected to start later this year.

A Nationwide spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that the fabric of the homes planned for Oakfield has been designed to deliver a higher standard of insulation and air tightness, which is currently expected to achieve an EPC rating of B – significantly exceeding current standards.

"Notwithstanding this, Nationwide is aware of the subsequent forthcoming legislation for the environmental credentials of new homes and is already reviewing the specification further, in conjunction with our contractor, as the detail is refined in the final stages of design."