Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

Solo living could cost the earth

Posted: 03/01/2007

So how many people live in one green building? More than one would seem to be the answer. Statistics show that increasing numbers of us are living alone. In twenty years’ time it’s estimated around 38% of the population will be living by themselves. Household numbers are expected to rise by more than 200 thousand a year in England alone – around three quarters of those will be one person households.

As a result of the anticipated demand across the UK, the Government intends to embark on mass home-building – the Thames Gateway being one of the largest schemes. And it's not just the simple number of houses that's costing the earth, people living singly have more household appliances per person than sharers and use proportionately more energy. They also occupy more land, create more waste and emit more carbon dioxide per head than people who share.

And while the government pushes for vast new build developments to cater for this growing trend, rather than supporting and promoting co-housing and other resource saving community living schemes, figures obtained by Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House, David Heath MP, have revealed an astonishing number of unoccupied homes throughout England.

The Government would only release figures up to 2005, when there were 723,200 vacant dwellings in England. This is a rise of nearly 10,000 on 2004 when there were 714,000 vacant dwellings. In every year since 2001, there have been over 700,000 unoccupied homes in England.

Mr Heath is calling on the Government to take action to reduce the number of unoccupied homes and to tackle the growing problem of homelessness. The Government itself admits that there are now over a 100,000 homeless families.

Commenting Mr Heath said: "It is a scandal that there are this many empty homes at a time when so many families are homeless. The Government must realise that there is an affordable housing crisis in this country but they're not doing anything about it.

"It will have been a bleak Christmas for many homeless families and yet there are over half a million unoccupied homes in England. There have been over 700,000 vacant dwellings in each of the last five years but the Government seems unwilling or unable to produce policies to tackle the problem. Local councils must be given the power to impose management orders on homes left empty for more than a year and whose owners have refused to bring them back into use. Councils should be encouraged to make use of these empty dwelling management orders."

Green Building Press  
 

Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

1762