Writing in the Guardian, David Ireland, a local government advisor for the Empty Homes Agency, criticised a report which called for homes with high emissions to be demolished. In response to the report by Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, Mr Ireland highlighted the large amounts of emissions involved with house building, due to the problem of embodied energy.
Embodied energy is the amount of energy used in each separate component of a house; most energy is consumed during production and transport. Mr Ireland's article claims that, whilst the total embodied energy for a new family house is around 90,000 kwh, a typical refurbishment of a three-bedroom home would normally use only 15,000 kwh of embodied energy.
Mr Ireland also referred to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the chemical reaction that makes cement set, with around a tonne of CO2 emitted for every tonne of cement used. His points out that refurbishment works require far less cement than new build projects.
According to Mr Ireland, there are 900,000 empty homes in the UK and the emphasis should be put renovating them, rather than building new homes, as the best way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The House Builders Federation, which represents some 300 developers across England and Wales, changed its name to the Home Builders Federation. One of its first initiatives under the new brand was to commission a satisfaction survey to get feedback from over 40,000 new home buyers.
John Laing Partnership became the first contractor to take timber frame construction to six storeys for affordable housing, demonstrating the flexibility of modern methods of construction, and increasing the number of homes on the site by over 50%. The new buildings, designed by architects Hunter & Partners, will provide 95 homes for Family HA West London.
The six-storey structure, timber frame system offers advantages, including:
Affordable housing developer Lovell was selected to develop schemes with a combined value of just under £4 million for association members of Flagship Housing Group.
The schemes include a £1.28 million project for Suffolk Heritage HA at Norton. Work will start in May on 14 new two, three, and four-bedroom houses for affordable rent and shared ownership.
Lovell will also start work this summer on a £1.6 million scheme for Kings' Forest Housing in Mildenhall. Eighteen new homes for affordable rent and shared ownership will be built using the FOLIO modular system, a state-of-the-art quality construction system where houses are built from self-contained modules created in factory conditions. The system was developed by the FOLIO partnership which includes Flagship Housing Group and Lovell.
In addition, Lovell has just started work on a £1.1 million scheme for Peddars Way HA in Dereham, where it is extending and converting an existing building to create or build eighteen new flats in two blocks. All will be for affordable rent.
A new development in Glasgow by Queens Cross HA, providing 95 homes for rent, was officially opened. Glasgow City Council invested just over £5 million from Communities Scotland in the £7.6 million development, which stands on a site freed up by the demolition of inter-war tenement properties. It is a mixture of cottage flats, tenement flats, and houses.
The scheme features innovative technology and energy efficient designs to cut tenants' power bills by 75%.
