ROOF Blog

Roof-mounted wind turbines and solar panels are ‘eco-bling’ that allow their owners to flaunt their green credentials but contribute very little towards meeting Britain’s carbon reduction targets, according to the Royal Academy of Engineering. Developers will waste millions of pounds installing such micro-generation devices unless the Government revises its building regulations on carbon-neutral homes and offices. Doug King, professor of building engineering at the University of Bath and the author of a report on low carbon buildings, said that far greater savings could be made by installing better insulation and methods of trapping the sun’s rays. He proposed that the government target for all new homes to be carbon-neutral by 2016 should be relaxed in return for developers making equivalent contributions to wind farms and other large-scale renewable energy projects.

Boris Johnson’s key election pledge to build 50,000 affordable homes in London in his first three years in office will not be delivered, City Hall has admitted.

The Mayor’s deputy for planning Sir Simon Milton said the target must be pushed to 2012 due to the downturn.

The number of affordable homes started since Mr Johnson was elected is 6,500, with 9,080 completions. At that rate the number built by May 2011 would be between 13,000 and 21,000.

Nicky Gavron, Labour’s housing representative on the London Assembly, said: ‘This is yet another broken promise’.