Date published: 2005/03/23
The BBC says:
Eighty-thousand houses need to be demolished yearly for the next decade if the UK is to meet its climate change commitments, research suggests.
The demolition of older houses built to low environmental standards would be four times the current rate, Oxford University researchers said.
It would mean the replacement of about 14% of homes, with 220,000 new homes built and others improved.
The government plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050.
The government said the report was "timely" and that it was committed to improving energy efficiency in homes.
Just over 25% of Britain's carbon dioxide emissions come from housing - either from fossil fuels burned in the home or the use of electricity generated from fossil fuels.
At present there are about 24 million homes, with about 180,000 more built each year. Only 20,000 are demolished.
Note first that the 80000 yearly demolition figure is not, as the article claims, just for the next decade. The current figure is 20000 and the report suggests that the rate is increased so as to reach 80000 in 2016 and then it stays at that level until 2050. Also, the figure of 220000 new homes built is per annum, but the 14% of homes is the total demolished between now and 2050. So the BBC has managed to garble the report somewhat.
As for the report itself, one has to hope that they have done the sums carefully (the full report is not available on the web as of today but there is a 20 page "executive summary" available on the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute website). In particular one could estimate that the cost of demolishing and rebuilding a house can range from 60000 to 100000 pounds (and that is if you just want mediocrity, not quality), and that requires a heck of a lot of compensating energy saving to justify being done just for the reason being given. (If the houses require expensive renovation in any case the demolition is more easily justified.) One has to wonder if we are getting to the stage where the government is going to tell a home owner to demolish and rebuild their house at their own cost, or face massive fines or going to prison. This is the world we live in today, run by control freaks. (Of course they all claim they are "saving the world". Right.)
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").