Everyone deserves a warm safe home, we cannot allow the house builders greed to take away this basic human need, hand in hand with the privatised energy sector this situation makes hard working families absolute slaves to the private sectorPatrick McAleer
Whilst council standards for their own properties rise to meet the requirements for climate change and reduction in fuel poverty, new build housing falls way below the minimum decent build standard for homes. The UK has the least energy efficient housing in Europe, and in a recent report on climate change Lord Deben actively criticised major house builder Persimmon homes for skimping on quality to boost it’s profits.
Within existing properties fuel poverty is increasingly prevalent, many of us put on extra layers as we simply cannot afford to heat our draughty homes and inefficient windows and doors can cost residents thousands of pounds in increased energy bills. The Scottish Government has set out ambitious targets to see 80% of Scottish homes reaching at least Grade E by 2024, but little progress has been made thus far. North Lanarkshire Greens are calling for warm homes to become a major infrastructure priority and insist that property owners must have access to knowledgable contractors and fair grant programmes delivered by reputable agencies rather than the inconsistent private partnership models seen in recent years.
North Lanarkshire Green Party co-convenor Patrick McAleer, said “We have all experienced the never ending rises in energy bills. To combat this we should insist that technology to reduce home heating bills is installed in new housing developments! Everyone deserves a warm safe home, we cannot allow the house builders greed to take away this basic human need, hand in hand with the privatised energy sector this situation makes hard working families absolute slaves to the private sector, Scottish Greens ask that the government raise the bar in it’s minimum requirements for house builders and the roll out of it’s retrofitting policy.”