Brickonomics

Not one but two Guardian opinion pieces related to housing today:

• Philip Pullman: The Castle Mill Boatyard will be wiped out and “developed” into a cluster of identikit houses by British Waterways and their developers. This plan isn’t only ugly: it’s daft.
• George Monbiot:Housing inspectors could make a huge impact on climate change – by enforcing the laws on energy efficiency.

Monbiot is scathing about the government’s new, voluntary “code for sustainable homes”, so I wonder what he thinks of this:

Climate change is top priority of London Plan review
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announced that his London Plan Review will set radical new objectives for planners and developers that will require new developments to connect to “decentralised” local energy supplies and achieve the highest standards of sustainable building design. The Review also doubles the carbon emission reductions that developments must achieve through onsite renewable energy from 10% to 20%.

The London Plan Review also proposes to set carbon dioxide reduction targets – a 20 per cent reduction by 2015 and a long-term target of a 60 per cent reduction by 2050. This is the first time that statutory carbon reduction targets have been set for London.

The Mayor is proposing a series of new development, transport and energy policies all with the aim of making London an exemplary and sustainable world city, adapting to inevitable climate change and reducing future carbon emissions.

Looking at the detail of these policies in the text of the Mayor’s Further Alterations to the London Plan, it seems to be a similar story of lots of encouragement, ’should’-ing and good practice, but without real powers of enforcement. The new London Plan should give a boost to sustainable construction in the capital, but we’ll have to see whether it is ultimately too little, too late.

Last link today is to Housing wealth – First timers to old timers from the IPPR. Exec summary is here, key points are as follows:

combating the wealth inequalities produced by the growth in home ownership cannot be achieved with subsidies to help people onto the housing ladder. Nor can homeownership alone deliver the benefits associated with mixed communities, such as improved educational outcomes and increased levels of community participation. Rather than providing large subsidies, the government should support people at either end of the lifecycle with policies that encourage ownership of a wider range of assets.