Together the schemes in Bedford and Cheshire will involve building 110 homes that can be delivered using less than 300kg/m2 of embodied carbon while also meeting ambitious energy efficiency targets.

The Crown Estate is seeking partners for the pilot projects and will look to test different models for project delivery, including through incentives for achieving environmental and financial outcomes.

Partners will be expected to follow market leading guidance and embrace circular economy and regenerative principles in their proposals. At Knutsford, there is an additional challenge of delivering low carbon road infrastructure.

The Crown Estate will look to apply lessons learned from these demonstration projects to their larger-scale projects while also sharing lessons learned to inform best practice within the wider industry.

The projects represent an evolution in The Crown Estate’s regional strategy. It now seeks to use its national land and property portfolio to support regional economic growth, contribute towards housing supply and enhance its returns to the Treasury.

Over the next decade, it will look to invest significantly in regeneration, delivering new, mixed-tenure residential communities and world-class locations for businesses to prosper.

Rob Chesworth, head of Regional Residential at The Crown Estate, said: “By being bold and pushing existing industry standards through these pilot projects and sharing our learning, we hope to demonstrate that high quality, net zero carbon homes are deliverable at scale and can form the cornerstone of vibrant, sustainable communities.

“We want to work with aligned SMEs and entrepreneurs who are putting innovation and sustainability at the forefront of house building and community-focused development to raise industry standards and galvanise momentum to meet the sector’s decarbonisation challenge.”