Housing
Along with road transport, domestic housing and energy use is currently one of the major obstacles to achieving carbon reduction targets. Housing currently accounts for just over 30% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the UK, and by 2010 the emissions from housing are expected to have risen 18.5% above 1990 levels. This rise is projected to continue beyond 2010. Action is being taken on new buildings through 2006 changes to the Building Regulations, and on existing housing through the Carbon Emission Reduction Target. The Government is introducing The Green Deal. It proposes tying low interest loans for energy efficiency improvements to the energy bills of the properties the upgrades are performed on. These debts would then be passed onto new occupiers when they take over the payment of the bills. It is proposed that the costs of the loan repayments would be less than the savings on the bills from the upgrades, however this will be a guideline and not legally enforceable guarantee. It is believed that energy bills like housing a cost people always meet those giving investors a secure return.
Read more about this topic: Energy Conservation In The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word housing:
“We have been weakened in our resistance to the professional anti-Communists because we know in our hearts that our so-called democracy has excluded millions of citizens from a normal life and the normal American privileges of health, housing and education.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)