The 1,400-page cap-and-trade legislation pushed through by House Democrats contains a new federal policy that residential, commercial, and government buildings be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency, leaving it up to the states to figure out exactly how to do that.
This means that homeowners, for example, could be required to retrofit their homes to meet federal “green” guidelines in order to sell their homes, if the cap-and-trade bill becomes law.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a national policy for residential and commercial buildings. The purpose of such a strategy – known as the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) – would be to “facilitate” the retrofitting of existing buildings nationwide.
“The Administrator shall develop and implement, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, standards for a national energy and environmental building retrofit policy for single-family and multi-family residences,” the bill reads.
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Showing posts with label Housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Housing. Show all posts
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Monday, November 10, 2008
Council House 'Tenancies For Life' Likely To Be Scrapped to Ease Housing Shortage
Council house tenancies for life are likely to be scrapped under radical Government plans to ease the chronic housing shortage.
Tenants would instead be given fixed-term contracts with regular reviews to ensure their circumstances entitle them to subsidised housing, it was reported last night.
Those whose financial situation improves will be forced to move into the private sector, purchase part-ownership of their home or face higher rents.
The right to a council house could also be made conditional on tenants having or actively looking for a job.
Read more...
Tenants would instead be given fixed-term contracts with regular reviews to ensure their circumstances entitle them to subsidised housing, it was reported last night.
Those whose financial situation improves will be forced to move into the private sector, purchase part-ownership of their home or face higher rents.
The right to a council house could also be made conditional on tenants having or actively looking for a job.
Read more...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Housing Minister Caroline Flint: Countryside Must Be Built On
The countryside must be built on to provide cheaper homes for young families, the housing minister has said.
Caroline Flint warned that a lack of available housing meant that younger and lower-paid people could no longer afford to live in the countryside.
"Many of our rural communities are growing older and older, and that is not sustainable for the future," she said, adding that the Government's attempt to change this meant "more building in some cases".
She added: "If we are going to keep our rural areas thriving, we need those younger people to stay there."
Miss Flint blamed the housing shortages on residents who "vociferously" opposed new building in their area, and said families were being forced apart.
"In a number of our rural communities, there are families that have lived there for generations, often in the lowest-paid jobs in a rural economy," she told BBC Radio 4.
"They're part of the rural history, makeup and nature of that area, and they are losing out."
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NO, The real reason younger people cant afford to live in the countryside is that mega rich bankers and M.P's have bought up all the affordable rural housing to extend and turn into holiday lets and second homes in the country therefore pushing up the prices of other properties in the area. I've seen it at first hand!
The village I grew up in in rural wales was a hive of activity with 2 pubs 3 tea rooms 3 shops a post office village school and a well focussed community.
Then the second home buyers started snapping up the available cottages doing them up and using them one week in the summer the rest of the local properties for sale started rising in price, then the holiday let market came and slowly but surely the shops started closing and turned into dwellings, the school closed due to falling numbers, now all that is left is a village shop/Post office and a pub.
The government and Post Office in their wisdom have now closed the post office and as the post master eplained the shop isnt viable without the post office so that is closing too!
I ber Caroline Flint has a second home in the country!!
Caroline Flint warned that a lack of available housing meant that younger and lower-paid people could no longer afford to live in the countryside.
"Many of our rural communities are growing older and older, and that is not sustainable for the future," she said, adding that the Government's attempt to change this meant "more building in some cases".
She added: "If we are going to keep our rural areas thriving, we need those younger people to stay there."
Miss Flint blamed the housing shortages on residents who "vociferously" opposed new building in their area, and said families were being forced apart.
"In a number of our rural communities, there are families that have lived there for generations, often in the lowest-paid jobs in a rural economy," she told BBC Radio 4.
"They're part of the rural history, makeup and nature of that area, and they are losing out."
Read more...
NO, The real reason younger people cant afford to live in the countryside is that mega rich bankers and M.P's have bought up all the affordable rural housing to extend and turn into holiday lets and second homes in the country therefore pushing up the prices of other properties in the area. I've seen it at first hand!
The village I grew up in in rural wales was a hive of activity with 2 pubs 3 tea rooms 3 shops a post office village school and a well focussed community.
Then the second home buyers started snapping up the available cottages doing them up and using them one week in the summer the rest of the local properties for sale started rising in price, then the holiday let market came and slowly but surely the shops started closing and turned into dwellings, the school closed due to falling numbers, now all that is left is a village shop/Post office and a pub.
The government and Post Office in their wisdom have now closed the post office and as the post master eplained the shop isnt viable without the post office so that is closing too!
I ber Caroline Flint has a second home in the country!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Housing For The Masses In A Post Bail Out World
It was a side trip through a destitute, ramshackle neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that detoured Brian McCarthy from building houses in Albuquerque to an idea to offer the very poor a chance to own a home.
His answer lies in a humble steel shipping container, 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, 8 1/2 feet tall.
McCarthy, 30, and three partners, Pablo Nava, 22; Kyle Annen, 23; and Mackenzie Bishop, 22, have made a prototype out of a standard shipping container that hauls goods worldwide - a 320-square-foot home with a kitchen, bath with toilet, sleeping areas, windows and a bright blue door. The exterior is painted with a white epoxy coating that has light-reflecting properties to prevent the sun's heat from penetrating.
Each small house includes hookups for air conditioning, ventilation, electrical and water systems - and the units ideally could be set up in small communities to make accessing utilities more efficient.
Read more...
His answer lies in a humble steel shipping container, 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, 8 1/2 feet tall.
McCarthy, 30, and three partners, Pablo Nava, 22; Kyle Annen, 23; and Mackenzie Bishop, 22, have made a prototype out of a standard shipping container that hauls goods worldwide - a 320-square-foot home with a kitchen, bath with toilet, sleeping areas, windows and a bright blue door. The exterior is painted with a white epoxy coating that has light-reflecting properties to prevent the sun's heat from penetrating.
Each small house includes hookups for air conditioning, ventilation, electrical and water systems - and the units ideally could be set up in small communities to make accessing utilities more efficient.
Read more...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Now will Gordon Brown Follow America's Lead And Save Our Housing Market?
Gordon Brown is under growing pressure to follow America's example and rescue the British housing market.
The U.S. Government's dramatic weekend decision to bail out its biggest mortgage companies set off a surge in share prices around the world.
It also exposed the timidity of the British government when faced with the meltdown at Northern Rock and the collapse of property sales.
A Treasury review is already being held into the way the housing market is financed in the UK.
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is due to decide within weeks whether to back an expected recommendation to provide taxpayer backing for mortgages worth billions.
Read more...
The U.S. Government's dramatic weekend decision to bail out its biggest mortgage companies set off a surge in share prices around the world.
It also exposed the timidity of the British government when faced with the meltdown at Northern Rock and the collapse of property sales.
A Treasury review is already being held into the way the housing market is financed in the UK.
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is due to decide within weeks whether to back an expected recommendation to provide taxpayer backing for mortgages worth billions.
Read more...
Monday, September 08, 2008
Britain's housing plan smells like Ponzi: James Saft
'Britain's plan to cut taxes and offer incentives to first-time buyers is sure to fail and smells a bit of Ponzi.
Britain this week announced a 1 billion pound package of measures including eliminating a 1 percent tax paid by buyers of houses costing less than 175,000 pounds and a program to give interest-free 30 percent down payment loans to first-time buyers with moderate incomes.
Ponzi schemes, called after a famous fraudster, attempt to use the money of new investors to pay unsustainably high returns to existing ones, but at their heart have no actual business or productive enterprise.
While by no means a fraud, the plan will in effect suck money from those not on the housing ladder or at its bottom to support those further up, as well, significantly, as the banks who've loaned them money. The plan also meets the Ponzi test in that it is an attempt to keep an overdeveloped and underproductive sector of the economy going.
It would be far better to acknowledge that British housing prices are much too high and likely to fall substantially from here, and to try to do what little can be done to soften the side effects.'
Read more...
Britain this week announced a 1 billion pound package of measures including eliminating a 1 percent tax paid by buyers of houses costing less than 175,000 pounds and a program to give interest-free 30 percent down payment loans to first-time buyers with moderate incomes.
Ponzi schemes, called after a famous fraudster, attempt to use the money of new investors to pay unsustainably high returns to existing ones, but at their heart have no actual business or productive enterprise.
While by no means a fraud, the plan will in effect suck money from those not on the housing ladder or at its bottom to support those further up, as well, significantly, as the banks who've loaned them money. The plan also meets the Ponzi test in that it is an attempt to keep an overdeveloped and underproductive sector of the economy going.
It would be far better to acknowledge that British housing prices are much too high and likely to fall substantially from here, and to try to do what little can be done to soften the side effects.'
Read more...
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