The labour government is trying get a spending package to improve efficiency standards in existing homes. This has been a long time coming while the talk was all about Eco towns which no-one can afford anymore, much less get financing for. The gains available through efficiency improvements are huge. I wonder if they will go far enough and endorse external cladding?
http://www.davidkidney.com/plans_for_energy_eff...
Linking housing improvements to an "eco village" is a typically bureaucratic way to do nothing.
A house can be improved wherever it is and it is pointless limiting that to purpose built eco villages. Sure, eco villages can achieve more through communal waste to heat extraction etc, but fixing individual houses still gets you a long way there.
Even with eco-villages, you still need to consider the existing houses. Moving people out of existing houses and demolishing the existing houses is very wasteful and is likely to undo any of the benefits of an eco village.
It makes a lot of sense to refurbish existing houses. Think of it as recycling.
But why does this need to be a government initiative? For state houses this makes sense but surely the private citizens can actually do things for themselves?
Written in February 2009
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