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The government is entirely capable of bringing in mandatory standards of construction for new builds that improve energy efficiency and longevity of new buildings.

They are also entirely able to change the tax and subsidy regime to make it more economic for people to retrofit improvements - although in some cases this will not be feasible.

That they do neither with great commitment is disappointing.
 
And they are still building thousands of houses that are no where as energy efficient as they could be because it is not cost effective for the developers. To me this gives a clear message that the government is full of words and no action, just trying to score points as politicians always do.

imagine doing what people used to do - only heating and cooling the part of the space you're in. That would halve energy consumption. How do I know? When my wife isn't here, I heat only the area of the house I'm in and not the entire house - quite comfortably, I must say - the consumption numbers by date range show up on my bills - they're about half adjusted for temperature differences. That's without changing comfort - I just can't go expect the part that's not being temperature controlled to suddenly be as comfortable as the part that is.
 
imagine doing what people used to do - only heating and cooling the part of the space you're in. That would halve energy consumption. How do I know? When my wife isn't here, I heat only the area of the house I'm in and not the entire house - quite comfortably, I must say - the consumption numbers by date range show up on my bills - they're about half adjusted for temperature differences. That's without changing comfort - I just can't go expect the part that's not being temperature controlled to suddenly be as comfortable as the part that is.


Umm some of us do that by necessity now. It really is surprising that the vast majority of members here really do live in a (quite comfortable and well off) bubble.
 
Umm some of us do that by necessity now. It really is surprising that the vast majority of members here really do live in a (quite comfortable and well off) bubble.
That could be that most have either earned a living from woodworking or taken up woodworking to make a change from another trade or skill base, in other words they have earnt what they now have by learning that skill in the first place. Too many expect everything to be handed out on a plate these days and with a giant airbag under them incase they take a fall, hard work and education never killed anyone directly.
 
Umm some of us do that by necessity now. It really is surprising that the vast majority of members here really do live in a (quite comfortable and well off) bubble.

I guess before we start reacting to what's by necessity, we'd have to understand the living space. My main living space is about 1500 square feet. I have another 800sf of below ground partially heated area, and I do nothing to supplement what it is (it's cool in the summer and cool in the winter). When the mrs. is out, I shut about half of the house off and only use a single area A/C (this isn't England so you'll see temps here in the summer, and sun intensity that you may not see there - touching 100F sometimes, and perhaps a few weeks over 90F each year. That said, as a child, I lived without A/C and while I didn't like the heat, I don't remember minding it much. The summer I first worked here, I had no A/C and it resulted in soggy book pages and a leather coat (long time ago) that grew mold - some book pages did, too, from the humidity - but I didn't lose sleep (just used a fan, and certainly had to wash sheets more often).

I'd be willing to bet more than half of the households here and there generally don't have much in terms of uncomfortable spaces.

That said, if my parents talked about zoning the house, their first floor is the same as my total living space. They do zone their living space (no heat in the upstairs except for two three hour swaths at night and in the morning, which means temps in the middle of the night could be in the mid to low 50s F - they sleep through it and so did I.....but their "half house" heat and air bill is more than my total bill with the Mrs. here, sometimes close to double.

The floor plan of newer houses here is generally open except for perhaps an office and a couple of bedrooms. A typical one floor house will have three bedrooms, one separate small washroom area and then the living room, kitchen and dining room have decorative dividers, but only one room and the ceilings are high to make the area feel open. The bedrooms are about 500SF of around a 2000SF total - there's nearly no chance to zone anything.

I'm guessing the doors in older houses were there to facilitate heating only a couple of rooms. My parents' house is old (Despite being large) and in any doorways that there was no interest in having swinging doors, there were pocket doors, and the areas that didn't require a locking door had sprung "Swingers".

Of course, they removed all of that and the addition to the house is a single large room with a vaulted ceiling and radiant heating in the floor (and a separate A/C).....to get an "open and light extra living space".
 
this sort of goes along with the light bulb thing. My dad hates CFL and LED bulbs. He won't use them. When he's here and find that my spouse leaves lights on all over the place, as I walk around and turn them off, he puts his head in his hands. I have to remind him that they're 9 watts each.

His living room will burn 800 watts if all of the lights are on. An insane amount of current.

but he grew up the child of farmers and those lights are literally only on if there is company, and that's for an hour or two every week. When he (and my mother) are in the house themselves, there is never more than the light next to you on, and then only if you're reading or need it. I have all LED bulbs, and I'm sure he uses less current than I do. We no longer stay at their house as they have a reflex of turning lights off and the kids get lost (and cannot stand sleeping in a 50F room). Dad will over around you if you have a light on next to you while you're watching TV and wait to confirm you're not reading anything (sitting in a pitch black room and watching TV isn't something I'm used to).
 
That could be that most have either earned a living from woodworking or taken up woodworking to make a change from another trade or skill base, in other words they have earnt what they now have by learning that skill in the first place. Too many expect everything to be handed out on a plate these days and with a giant airbag under them incase they take a fall, hard work and education never killed anyone directly.

Got it, too stupid and lazy to have any money, cheers.
 
Got it, too stupid and lazy to have any money, cheers.

I think all people wanting to get on the housing ladder these days would like is a similar first time buyer affordability that previous generations had.

"Average house prices are currently 7.6 X the annual salary, official figures show that theaverage price paid for a home jumped 259% between 1997 and 2016 while earnings rose a measly 68% by comparison"

Add in the risk adverse high deposit that lenders have required since the financial crash, it's no surprise house ownership is out of reach for many.
 
Those numbers in the US, I heard Clark Howard relay several years ago - well, probably around 2008 or so thinking back.

(apologize for the poor word order above - it's a brain problem).

But in the 1950s, houses were typically purchased with a loan value of about 2x salary. In general, they were also smaller and less well fitted out (my house was 50s - but the simplicity is wonderful for someone who wants to do most of the work on their own house. there's still a power garage door, and still a cast iron toilet drain stack with two stems off, and a third bathroom in the basement - but everything to work on except for where the garage ceiling is plastered...everything other than that is right in front of you.....

..back to non tangent - it was about 2x my salary when I got it, I've spent a little on it ( another third of its purchase price over 15 years)....

11x for a loan....11x, I just can't fathom that.



11 times salary for a house loan. How do people sleep?
 
I think all people wanting to get on the housing ladder these days would like is a similar first time buyer affordability that previous generations had.

"Average house prices are currently 7.6 X the annual salary, official figures show that theaverage price paid for a home jumped 259% between 1997 and 2016 while earnings rose a measly 68% by comparison"

Add in the risk adverse high deposit that lenders have required since the financial crash, it's no surprise house ownership is out of reach for many.
On the other hand, when I got my first mortgage, the interest was pushing 17%.
Doesn't exactly balance the scales, but significant, none the less.
 
I think all people wanting to get on the housing ladder these days would like is a similar first time buyer affordability that previous generations had.

"Average house prices are currently 7.6 X the annual salary, official figures show that theaverage price paid for a home jumped 259% between 1997 and 2016 while earnings rose a measly 68% by comparison"

Add in the risk adverse high deposit that lenders have required since the financial crash, it's no surprise house ownership is out of reach for many.

You got all it all wrong Robin, it's all our fault, we spend too much money on fancy coffees and avocado toast.
 
On the other hand, when I got my first mortgage, the interest was pushing 17%.
Doesn't exactly balance the scales, but significant, none the less.
Oh I appreciate getting on the home ownership ladder has always been difficult in the past.

The problem now is rent is so much higher than a mortgage, people get trapped in renting - as they can't save for a deposit.
 
Oh I appreciate getting on the home ownership ladder has always been difficult in the past.

The problem now is rent is so much higher than a mortgage, people get trapped in renting - as they can't save for a deposit.
Agreed. Removing the tax breaks on buy to let mortgages was a good thing. Should've happened sooner.
 
Oh I appreciate getting on the home ownership ladder has always been difficult in the past.

The problem now is rent is so much higher than a mortgage, people get trapped in renting - as they can't save for a deposit.
Varies. 1960s there were bits of run down housing going for £50 - mate of mine bought one. When we were at school we started a whip round to buy a local farmhouse on the market for £50, but we couldn't quite make it. I think we got to something like £4.7.6d.
I bought my first house for £3500 in 1974. It had previously changed hands at £500.
Housing in Britain is a major political failure on the part of all, especially Thatcher who kicked off the current round.
 
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Varies. 1960s there were bits of run down housing going for £50 - mate of mine bought one. When we were at school we started a whip round to buy a local farmhouse on the market for £50, but we couldn't quite make it. I think we got to something like £4.7.6d.
I bought my first house for £3500 in 1974. It had previously changed hands at £500.
Housing in Britain is a major political failure on the part of all, especially Thatcher who kicked off the current round.
having looked into the housing crisis in detail, it seems the only solution is for the govt to build houses.

the private sector building more houses will never solve the problem -especially as they control the availability of land (by land banking)
 
I'd guess you are a right wing libertarian, probably a Trump and Brexit supporter.....which are all linked

I bet you dislike Greta Thunberg?

Libertarian groups such as the Koch foundation fund climate change denier think tanks that push out misinformation and campaign for fossil fuel interests.

https://bylinetimes.com/2019/06/10/...d-raab-all-part-of-the-tufton-street-network/

Oh god, stop following me around. You know nothing about me you wet lettuce of a man
 
Oh I appreciate getting on the home ownership ladder has always been difficult in the past.

The problem now is rent is so much higher than a mortgage, people get trapped in renting - as they can't save for a deposit.
Rent only higher than mortgage due to interest rates.
My first house mortgage much higher than rent as interest rate was 16%.
Great for savers, lousy for borrowers.
Savings rate at that time was 10.5%
 
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