Five new eco-towns to be built
The government has asked local authorities and developers to bid for money towards building five new housing settlements around the country. The new developments will consist of between 5,000 and 20,000 carbon neutral homes. The new towns will be designed to ensure schools and shopping facilities are within walking distance from the houses to reduce car journeys. The houses will have the latest energy saving technology built into them. There is already an eco-town being built at the moment in Northstowe near Cambridge. Gordon Brown has said that all new houses will be carbon neutral by 2016.
The materials and technology are all available now, so why the nine year delay? A Friends of the Earth spokesperson pointed out that our homes account for 25% of all UK CO2 emissions, so the government needs to bring the deadline for new homes to be carbon neutral forward to 2010. It really makes no sense to build any new houses now that are not carbon neutral. The other area that needs to be looked at is improving the existing housing stock. The government should be providing the funding to allow house owners to install CO2 reducing technologies like solar roof panels, wind turbines, wall and loft insulation…etc
