In the news: Malthouse and Clark

Plans unveiled for discounted homes

Housing Minister, Kit Malthouse, has unveiled plans to help fund ‘discounted homes’ in parts of the country that need them most.

He’s announced £8.5 million will be made available to community volunteer schemes to help identify suitable sites, get planning permission and provide technical support.

It’s part of a three year pilot to build ‘cut-price’ homes for young people and families. The concept of community focused building projects will be reviewed next year to see how successful the first wave of developments are.

The government is continuing to launch initiatives to help the UK work towards its annual housebuilding target of 300,000. We’re currently hovering around two-thirds of this target.

This announcement came days after Malthouse described the 300,000 as a ‘mythical target’ to a gathering of architects and designers.

Promising words on cutting the UK’s CO2 emissions

We’ve had a tentative thumbs up from Whitehall following the Committee on Climate Change’s report into the UK becoming a zero carbon nation by 2050.

Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Energy, has given some promising words about the report’s recommendations, without putting any concrete commitments in place.

The CCC document shows that it’s feasible for the UK to tighten it’s current CO2 reduction targets. We are currently aiming to cut emissions by 80% over 60 years (from 1990 to 2050). This new report shows with extra investment it is possible to achieve a 100% reduction.

Clark has said they will ‘study the recommendations carefully’ before making any promises, ..’but it’s evident already that this is going to be one of the most important publications not just that we’ve had on climate in this country but around the world.’

In a separate report earlier this year the CCC suggested the UK should phase out the use of gas boilers by 2025 – some saying that’s a jump too far given current building regulations continue to encourage developers to use gas over electricity.

Further reading

• Gas boilers to be banned in 2025?