Articles

If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently and especially stories about carbon reduction targets and the build-up to COP26 in Glasgow, you can’t have missed mention of heat pumps.

There has been good, bad and uninformed comment but the main message is clear: Heat pumps are here now, and they offer a viable solution to heating our homes in a low carbon way that will help tackle climate change.

And the country really needs to find a way to decarbonise society, if we are to get anywhere near the ambitious targets for carbon reduction that the government has signed up to.

And this is where heat pumps can really help!

Social housing can help reduce society’s carbon footprint with renewables

The United Kingdom has set a legal goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve this, the government wants to increase household energy efficiency and transition to greener heating methods by the end of the decade, halving the energy use of new builds.

Considering 40% of UK emissions come from households, it’s clear to see that our homes have an important part to play in meeting the 2030 emissions reductions.

In 2020, around 4 million houses were occupied by households socially renting.

This just goes to show how big a role housing associations and local authorities will play in tackling the climate crisis.

Introduced on 4th May, the new Debt Respite Scheme, also known as ‘Breathing Space’, could have a significant impact on residential landlords considering possession proceedings to recoup rent arrears. So, what do registered providers (RPs) need to be aware of and what steps must they now take when considering bringing legal proceedings against tenants?
 
Implemented to give those facing debt problems protection from their creditors, the Debt Respite Scheme includes two types of Breathing Spaces; Standard Breathing Space and Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space. Standard Breathing Space is available to anyone with problem debt and provides an individual with legal protection from creditor action for up to 60 days. This includes most enforcement action being paused, the prevention of contact from creditors and the freezing of most interest charges on the debt.
 
The Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space is only available to a person receiving mental health crisis treatment, with protection lasting as long as the individual’s treatment lasts, plus 30 days after their treatment ends.

TV presenter and architect George Clarke looks at the global shortage of construction materials.

The global pandemic has been difficult for everyone. I still remember the turmoil in the first few weeks of the national lockdown with everyone trying to work out what we could do and couldn’t do.

Construction was allowed to continue and was seen as ‘essential work’ to the UK economy.

However, there was still massive disruption across the industry. Fearful of catching the virus some construction workers simply wouldn’t turn up to work, others found it difficult to travel to physically get to site.
 
Some would catch the virus and have to self-isolate for weeks, others would catch the virus and not make it through. My heart goes out to anyone who lost a friend or relative to Covid.

George Clarke explores the contradictions in government housing policy

So, the government has published a new, draft National Model Design Code (NMDC) to ‘bring back beauty’ to the way new-build homes and estates are built across the country.

Following on from the ‘Building Better Building Beautiful Commission’ that published its report in January 2020, the government has since appointed URBED, a design and research company based in Manchester, to produce a checklist of design principles to consider for new developments covering everything from urban design to street character, facades, building types, environmental design and well-being.

So, the government has published a new, draft National Model Design Code (NMDC) to ‘bring back beauty’ to the way new-build homes and estates are built across the country.

These are exciting times for INCA, the Insulated Render and Cladding Association, the trade association solely focused upon external wall insulation (EWI), a cladding form used in both refurbishment and new build sectors.