Sustainability and the environment are "moving further up the agenda", according a Green councillor in Mid Suffolk.

But what has been the biggest change in 2021? According to Councillor Andrew Stringer one major change is electric car charging points, which are now included in many new home applications.

The Green party councillor believes that this year, more than ever, there has been a shift towards more environmentally friendly projects in Mid Suffolk, and that working with, and not against developers, can help the district achieve more sustainable housing schemes.

Mr Stringer said: "One where we’ve worked with developers has been in Pretyman Avenue, in Bacton, where we worked with the developer on the detail stage, and now all of the new houses have air source heat pumps and the vast majority of the roofs are orientated towards the sun so they can put solar panels on if they wish.”

“They’ve also got electric car charging infrastructure in all of the residencies."

But this is not the only site where changes have been made.

He said: “A number of big developments have been fundamentally re-designed all for the better of the future.

“It has been patchy, but we have got lots of instances now where we’ve worked with developers, and sometimes had to threaten refusing the application or delaying the application in some way, to achieve this."

Mr Stringer also said that next year is "all to play for" after feeling "the tide begin to turn" over the past 12 months in terms of sustainable development.

He added: "We are seeing applications coming in that don’t rely on fossil fuels.”

Looking ahead Mr Stringer said: “The big challenge for next year is to make sure we keep defending inappropriate development, and also making sure that the general standard of housing is improved.”

Mr Stringer stressed that 2022 is a "very important" year, and said the council will strive to make sure that everything that is approved will go towards helping us achieve a zero-carbon future.