Tory U-Turn on green policies

Katie59
I couldn’t agree more. Insulation is our mantra. If the the government were serious about climate change this should be somewhere at the top of the list.
Ours is a 1930s built bungalow, semi detached. We put 4 inches of insulation boards down the whole length on the exposed walls. Those walls feel warm even on the coldest day.
Fortunately we only had the cost of materials because oh is able to do the work.

Another gripe I have is, cement. What an environmental horror that is. There are alternatives to cement so why not build houses in a different way. Construction is depleting the Sahara desert. They are taking sand from there.

So it is likely that Sunak will be challenged in court over his rowing back on green policies.

There has been much international condemnation.

We do build well insulated houses these days Greta. The current building regulations are very strict in that regard and every developer has to abide by them.

Callanan

It is possible to build well insulated houses that retain heat. We don't do this as a rule. Once you have a house you must maintain it. This will cost.
It was interesting in the House of Lords yesterday. Peers were up in arms about Sunak's U-turn
I thought Lord Callahan was pathetic trying to defend him.

We have

Glass recycling bin
Green waste bags (or bun if you choose)
Recycling bags (plastics, cans, and paper etc)
Cardboard
Food waste
Black bags (non recyclable)

Living in France we have recycling bins in every town and village and on the roads in and out. We take our glass, plastics, paper and card and poke it in the right hole. We have a compost bin provided by our commune and a dustbin collection once a week for the rest.

growstuff

PS. I feel deprived. I only have two bins and a small food caddy.

We (I live in a flat) are even poorer bin wise - only two! I feel robbed.

growstuff

No idea DAR. I guess the scaremongering strawmen have been out and about.

Sadly the Little Aristocrat following so closely on the heels of the Clown Aristocrat is beginning to make believe that we may need a written constitution. This in order to stop those who feel they are so above the rest of us that lying and rule breaking don't matter as long as it's them doing it.

We obviously have voters who so easily believe these lies that they need protecting from them.

Casdon

growstuff

And who said anything about seven bins?

I’ve got 6 bins already, and it’s fine.
Garden waste
Black non recyclable
Glass
Plastic and metal
Paper
Food waste
Mind you, I am in Wales, and we are more into recycling.

Living in NE England, I have 4 bins, plastics and metal in one. Garden waste, paper and cardboard, domestic waste, three re cycling depots where you can take other items. Food waste goes in friends compost bin. Think we are all trying g to do our bit, wherever we live.

Germanshepherdsmum

DiamondLily

My SIL is a gas engineer, and he's deeply unimpressed with heat pump heating. It's expensive, slow and noisy.

Not something I'd want.

It’s expensive to install but ours, in a new build, is not expensive to run, slow or noisy. I’m not sure what a gas engineer knows about them as they run on electricity. I wouldn’t have any other means of heating now, provided it was installed in a new build with underfloor heating and, as they are ugly things, very unobtrusively positioned, as ours is.

Vailliant, where he's a manager, are certainly installing heat pumps.🙂

Whatever type of heating you choose insulation comes first, for many/most older houses that will mean dry lining the outside walls and double/triple glazing, that makes an enormous difference.
We refurbished an apartment last year dry lining walls and a new combi boiler, a massive improvement but it cost 3 yrs rent to do it. There comes a time when if the structure is sound you have to spend the money.

So, to round up Sunak’s policy.

No one was ever going to be forced to change their car on the stroke of 2030

All it meant was that the only cars being manufactured would be new cars.

There would still be second had diesel and petrol cars to be purchased as well as second hand electric/hybrid cars.

So moving the policy forward to 2035, when the car industry is gearing up for 2030 is policy nonsense.

Second - heat pumps - so, just as the cars, no one has to stop using their existing heating system - it is simply that fossil fuel systems were no longer to be sold.

Heat pumps are not the only alternative form of heating - there is plenty of other forms. In fact when our children were growing up we lived in a Scandinavian type house that had hot air heating pumped out by an electric boiler - very efficient.

What Sunak appears to have successfully done is treat people like idiots and convinced them that heat pumps will be the only alternative and scared them with the overall cost. As technology develops (and it develops very quickly) it will overcome the various difficulties and boilers will be as easily installed as existing fossil fuel types.

Everything else he said was lies.

Tomorrow's headline in the Sun?

"Sunak stops binflation"

PS. I feel deprived. I only have two bins and a small food caddy.

No idea DAR. I guess the scaremongering strawmen have been out and about.

I'm planning to move in with my partner some time in the New Year, but it's on condition he sorts out the heating in his house, which is cold. I'm used to my toasty little house.

His house was built in the 1970s and doesn't seem to have anything done to the heating since then - and his fuel bills are enormous. I went up in the loft and he hardly has any insulation. His radiators could do with replacing too. His boiler, quite frankly, is on its last legs after 40 years in the same house.

I've already given him a list of roof insulation people, so hopefully that will be sorted soon. It's estimated 35% of a house's heat is lost through the roof. Next step will be to get somebody in to assess the boiler and radiators. They need doing anyway, but nobody is forcing us to have a heat pump.

PS. We will probably get a quote for solar panels too.

The point is that this work needs doing anyway and there's no escaping the cost. If we can get a grant from somewhere, that will be fantastic, but there's no way I'm spending the rest of my life being frozen - and paying an extortionate fuel bill.

If people own a house, I'm afraid it needs maintaining, but nobody's forcing anybody to go for the expensive option.

growstuff

maddyone

Grantanow

I had a survey done by a reputable firm to assess the costs of a heat pump and insulation. It came to about £15,000 for the heat pump and larger radiators and about £10,000 for insulation. The grant was £5,000. I put in a new condensing gas boiler at £2,000. Sunak's increased grant of £7,500 comes nowhere near persuading me otherwise. And there's all the decorative costs afterwards. He and the net zero lobby are out of touch.

This!
And add to that the cost.
It doesn’t matter if it’s now, not now, in five, ten, or fifteen years, people are not going to magically be able to afford this. I understand that many Gransnetters can afford it, but many other Gransnetters can’t, and neither can the vast majority of the population, who are already struggling with the cost of living, using food banks, and saying they can’t afford to buy school uniforms for their children. Young people are barely able to afford houses apparently, but hey presto, they’ll all be magically able to afford this outlay to install heat pumps whenever their boilers fail.

And that’s without discussing how poor heat pumps are at the job they’re actually supposed to do- heat your home!

Who is forcing anybody to have heat pumps installed?

Not just "Who". Why does anyone think they are about to be forced?

maddyone

Grantanow

I had a survey done by a reputable firm to assess the costs of a heat pump and insulation. It came to about £15,000 for the heat pump and larger radiators and about £10,000 for insulation. The grant was £5,000. I put in a new condensing gas boiler at £2,000. Sunak's increased grant of £7,500 comes nowhere near persuading me otherwise. And there's all the decorative costs afterwards. He and the net zero lobby are out of touch.

This!
And add to that the cost.
It doesn’t matter if it’s now, not now, in five, ten, or fifteen years, people are not going to magically be able to afford this. I understand that many Gransnetters can afford it, but many other Gransnetters can’t, and neither can the vast majority of the population, who are already struggling with the cost of living, using food banks, and saying they can’t afford to buy school uniforms for their children. Young people are barely able to afford houses apparently, but hey presto, they’ll all be magically able to afford this outlay to install heat pumps whenever their boilers fail.

And that’s without discussing how poor heat pumps are at the job they’re actually supposed to do- heat your home!

Who is forcing anybody to have heat pumps installed?

I’d actually like some more bins, our local council are very poor in this regard in my opinion. Food waste, garden waste, bottle caps, margarine cartons, yoghurt cartons, our council recycle none of these!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK9Q5uyn0zk

Marr's New Statesman analysis.

Grantanow

I had a survey done by a reputable firm to assess the costs of a heat pump and insulation. It came to about £15,000 for the heat pump and larger radiators and about £10,000 for insulation. The grant was £5,000. I put in a new condensing gas boiler at £2,000. Sunak's increased grant of £7,500 comes nowhere near persuading me otherwise. And there's all the decorative costs afterwards. He and the net zero lobby are out of touch.

This!
And add to that the cost.
It doesn’t matter if it’s now, not now, in five, ten, or fifteen years, people are not going to magically be able to afford this. I understand that many Gransnetters can afford it, but many other Gransnetters can’t, and neither can the vast majority of the population, who are already struggling with the cost of living, using food banks, and saying they can’t afford to buy school uniforms for their children. Young people are barely able to afford houses apparently, but hey presto, they’ll all be magically able to afford this outlay to install heat pumps whenever their boilers fail.

And that’s without discussing how poor heat pumps are at the job they’re actually supposed to do- heat your home!

Casdon

DaisyAnneReturns

Casdon

Here’s the BBC Bins lowdown.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66878893
I’m proud to be known as Six Bins Casdon in future Callistemon21 (it reminds me of Three Steaks Pam in Gavin and Stacey). I like recycling, and I really don’t find it an issue to do it at all. Go for it Rishi, you know it’s the right thing to do.

You do know that Sunak is saying he will ban attempts to have a law saying we would have six bins. A law that didnt and wasn't going to exist, don't you Casdon?

Yes, that’s why I posted the link - but recycling is a devolved issue, and I’m in Wales DaisyAnne, we do all this already and it’s absolutely not a problem.

I am now carrying my "More Devolution" placard.

Lucky Wales.

This is being discussed on QT now.

Love Three Steaks Pam 😃
And her Christmas towels.