mervyncarter
Registered: 11/08/09
Posts: 3
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| | 11/15/09 at 02:17 PM | | #1 |
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This topic serves as a starter for discussion on how the Transition Colchester group will define and carry its message into the area of housing policy for the post-oil era. Please feel free to add suggestions or recommend online resources
Where are we now ?
Energy use in the home amounts to roughly 30% of the UK's total demand, mostly for space heating. Demand has risen by about 15% from 1991 levels. Roughly 10% of households are defined as in Fuel Poverty (spending 10% or more of their income on energy to maintain reasonable warmth)
Colchester, like many similar towns, has a high proportion of old housing stock that could benefit from improvements in insulation and more efficient heating systems. Such work may be subject to government grants that go a long way to meeting the cost (see http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk and http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/home/ for details). Many energy saving measures are cost-saving for householders in the medium to long term. However, the capital outlay may be difficult at a time of perceived economic hardship, so take up is unlikely to work fast enough or to bring down the energy use of housing far enough within the timescale needed. A separate discussion topic on energy policy will no doubt cover this in more detail
For an overview of the local council's housing policy assessments, see the Colchester Borough Council website, especially:-
http://www.colchester.gov.uk/servedoc.asp?filename=Colchester_SHMA_Exec_summary_final.pdf
How will Transition to low-carbon living affect housing ?
* As fuel costs rise, take up of low-carbon heating systems and insulation will increase. In the case of town gas, cost increases are likely to be driven by derivatives market speculation and tax tariffs rather than by real shortage - there is an awful lot of gas left in the world, far more than oil - and far more than we can burn at present rates without creating run-away global warming
* As more climate refugees arrive in the UK, and average household size continues to shrink, housing demand will rise, creating demand for new build and bringing presently empty buildings back on to the market. Housing cooperatives will help meet demand in low income communities (see http://www.chickenshack.co.uk/ for an inspiring ecologically visionary example)
* New-build housing will need to be based on local materials (Sustainably managed forest timber ?) having a low energy cost (I read recently that it takes an average of two kilowatt hours of energy to fire each brick in a kiln, let alone the cost of digging the clay and transporting them to building sites. Cement is also very energy intensive to make - and some plants use low-grade polluting fuels to create the heat to process it). Some affordable housing may be factory produced to best insulation practices and assembled on location, perhaps as a self-build modular kit
* Housing units will be smaller and may share high-cost plant between several households, eg combined heat and power units, heat pumps, wind energy plant. This can be most effective in mixed use developments eg where the heat of a Combined Heat and Power plant can serve some commercial use when it is not needed for domestic space heating
* In cold winter weather, people will heat and occupy smaller and fewer rooms to save heating and lighting costs. Insulation plans may focus on these rooms to maximise the gain on investment. Other rooms will only be used in warm weather
* The ever-rising cost of travel will reduce demand for parking spaces and roads
* Gardens will be valued for growing food. Areas around housing can be planted with fruit trees (see the food discussion)
* An overall shrinkage of the economy in the post-oil age will reduce the need for and availability of paid work, so people will spend more time at home or in community-centred activities. This will probably lead to a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (decreasing at work and through less commuting, increasing at home) More time spent in the community will encourage social action and self-reliance. Conversely, lower incomes will make housing renovation less affordable
* Sea level rises will destroy some coastal housing areas and threaten others. Frequent, heavy storms will flood river valleys. Housing insurance costs will rise as a proportion of dwindling disposable income
Where will this lead us ?
Although there are many initiatives that can and will contribute to a reduction in the carbon footprint of housing, they will not add up to a solution capable of sustainability, ie dealing with the end of the fossil energy supply. Getting our energy usage down to the this level (perhaps 20% of current usage) will demand extensive changes in the way we live
What can Transition Colchester do on housing, and the broader agenda ?
Low hanging fruit
* Publicise and promote take-up of energy saving grants
* Find an online guide to best practice and promote its use
* Recommend Green energy suppliers
* Encourage consumer-lead behavioural changes, such as reducing heating demand
* Promote recycling and local sourcing of building materials
* Network with local campaign groups who support our themes
Tasty fruit to stretch for
* Bring empty property into renovation and use - Greener than new-build
* Challenge Local Government to be more radical in its thinking on the low-carbon future
* Raise awareness of sea level changes and flood risks. Challenge building in flood zones
* Publicise present initiatives, by individuals and developers (See Brighton's example at http://www.ecoopenhouses.org/ including the brilliant and innovative Earthship Project at http://www.lowcarbon.co.uk/ plus Stroud's Open Day at http://www.stroudopenhomes.org.uk/ plus Colchester's Energy Village at http://www.thegreenedge.co.uk/essex-energy-village/ and Clacton's EcoDIY house at http://www.ecodiy.org/)
* Liaise with local developers who have an interest in green architecture. Press for zero-carbon new-build housing
* Mount a Transition Town exhibition in the library
Harder nuts to crack
* Getting serious positive media coverage
* Promoting cultural changes that will nurture the green shoots of a post-carbon Colchester
* Convert the image of post-oil life into a vision to embrace rather than a threat to avoid or defer
* Building social networks/intentional communities that will be resilient to the changes ahead
* Dealing with the social stresses arising from the end of the oil binge (the "oil hangover" !)
* Solving the population crisis: Post oil, we cannot sustain the projected world population of nearly ten billion people
I hope the above will help whet our appetites and I look forward to reading contributions to this topic as replies to this thread. I can also be contacted via a private message link on my profile page
Cheers all
Mervyn Carter
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pechis
Registered: 11/16/09
Posts: 1
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| | 11/16/09 at 05:25 PM | | #2 |
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Mervyn, very comprehensive and a couple of comments.
Colchester Borough Council has not offered Housing Improvement Grants for some years prefering to offer loans that can be reclaimed when the property is sold on.. These are not very popular.
This is obviously good value for CBC and the Council Tax payer but it does little to improve the quality of existing housing of Colchester, the majority of which is 30-80 years old with a high proportion of Victorian solid walled houses.
Some Councils have bid for funding from EERA, East of England Regional Assembly, within their sub-regional housing investment groups, for example Thames Gateway (S Essex Councils) and London Commuter Belt (Herts and W Essex Councils), and are able to offer Cavity Wall and Loft Insulation for £99 each , free to households in receipt of income related benefirts, they also offer Solid Wall Insulation free to benefit recipients along with boiler upgrades and solar water heating.
CBC is in the Haven Gateway Housing Group (N Essex and S Suffolk Councils) but I have no idea if they were successful in bidding to EERA and if they were what they are spending the funding on.
Braintree District Council has for several years offered £1000 grants towards the cost of insatling renewable energy measures in homes, e.g. Solar thermal, photovoltaics and biomass boilers, there are no qualifying benefits required for these grants, they are available to all.
One point to bear in mind about housing and climate change is that we are likely to see warmer winters and summers, thereby reducing the incidence of fuel poverty and winter mortality but increasing the likelihood of summer related heat stress. So our houses will have to be adapted to cope with hotter summers, e.g. more shading and preferably not air conditioning.
Thanks
Peter
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Peter Chisnall |
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PaulWagland
Registered: 10/16/09
Posts: 9
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| | 11/17/09 at 11:58 AM | | #3 |
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Mervyn's first point about the 30% energy use is very important - it's a huge chunk of the demand, and an aspect of their lives that people are very defensive of.
I wonder if we can find any figures on the number of empty properties in Colchester?
Interesting last point Peter. Of course insulation can be designed to reduce summer heat gain, as well as winter heat loss. And it's generally much easier to passively cool a building (by good ventilation) than it is to passively heat it (for example by solar gain, which has to be included at the design stage).
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mervyncarter
Registered: 11/08/09
Posts: 3
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mervyncarter
Registered: 11/08/09
Posts: 3
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| | 12/10/09 at 04:15 AM | | #5 |
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Just for information
Empty homes figures for Colchester (2008)
Total for Colchester 2227 (~3% of total stock)
Mostly privately owned = 2117, of which 883 have been empty for six months or more
Around 110 owned by council or housing associations
Source
http://www.emptyhomes.com/usefulinformation/stats/east08.htm
Cheers Friends |
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