好色先生TV

The government is exploring how to use profits from the 160,000 homes to be built in the Thames Gateway to curb carbon emissions from the area鈥檚 existing housing.

Speaking at a fringe event at this year鈥檚 Labour party conference, housing minister Yvette Cooper said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to reduce carbon emissions from the whole community 鈥� not just the new development.鈥� She said that the communities department wanted the proceeds from the development to contribute towards works such as improving energy efficiency and insulation. 鈥淭he Thames Gateway is the most obvious place to look at this,鈥� she added.

She later told 好色先生TV that the Thames Gateway was a good area to trial this approach because of the scale of housebuilding planned for the area. The government aims to build 160,000 homes there by 2016.

鈥淲e have commissioned a major study that looks at carbon emissions from existing homes,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e can use the economies of scale from new development to drive improvements in stock. With the new-build programme, we can develop standards and techniques to improve existing homes.鈥�

Housebuilder Bellway has already looked into using section 106 contributions to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes, instead of using the money to install renewable energy equipment on its new development.

好色先生TV鈥檚 99% campaign highlighted the carbon savings that can be achieved by improving the efficiency of existing homes.

Older houses are not subject to the same environmental standards as new developments.