Learning from the past

With increasing emphasis on environmentally friendly building that requires little heating and loses little energy due to good insulation, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was something new.

In fact, as a British Gas survey has found out, Britain’s planners and planners could learn a thing or two from the past.

BBC News reported that British Gas discovered that “Tudor homes have better energy efficiency than many more recent buildings” and “because the wooden-beam buildings were made airtight with stones or wattle and daub, they had fewer carbon emissions”.

Knee-jerk deregulation won’t help

Edinburgh City Council has announced the city’s skyline will be transformed as it moves to allow wind turbines and solar panels to be put up without planning permission.

The Scotsman has reported that the council “was tearing away red tape for home-owners in an effort to hit Government targets for cutting pollution”.

The only problem is that allowing the installation of micro-generation facilities without some oversight and control will allow cowboy businesses to move in (as has happened with double-glazing), result in more wastage of resources (why put in a wind turbine that generates little or no electricity) and discourage people from making a real difference (when you discover your wind turbine or solar panel cost a fortune and does nothing, would you been keen to do more?).