Ashford Zed wins planning appeal
Posted: 08/07/2008
Green developer Zed Homes has won its planning appeal to build a green housing scheme of more than 1,000 apartments in the centre of Ashford, Kent. The site has already been identified by the town council as being critical to the successful growth and economic prosperity of Ashford and the council intends the site to be... more
Source: Green Building Press   

'Rural eco towns make no sense'
Posted: 08/07/2008
The Government should drop proposals for eco-towns in rural locations and concentrate instead on developing sustainable communities in urban areas, according to the chairman of Birmingham’s planning committee. Councillor Peter Douglas Osborn said the council would be pushing ahead with its own plans to build five eco-towns within the... more
Source: Birmingham Post   

Government fails to deliver on energy ambitions
Posted: 08/07/2008
The Government is failing to deliver on its “ultimate ambition” of using every unit of energy as efficiently as possible. Chapter 2 of the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy stated that “Our ultimate ambition is that we use every unit of energy as efficiently as possible.” Yet according to a coalition of leading business and... more
Source: Green Building Press   

New software will measure carbon footprint
Posted: 08/07/2008
The Energy Centre for Sustainable Communities (ECSC) has recently announced the launch of C-Plan (Carbon Planner), an innovative web based software service which allows local planning authorities and developers to measure, monitor and report on the carbon impact of new developments... more
Source: Green Building Press   

Unsaleable properties for social housing ? No thanks
Posted: 08/07/2008
The National Housing Federation has rejected proposals by the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, to shore up the construction industry - which would see housing associations buying up 150,000 unsaleable properties from private developers. The scheme would lead to a 100 fold increase in the number of homes bought by... more
Source: 24dash.com   

Green buildings feature in design awards
Posted: 07/07/2008
Projects using heat recovery and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) to boost their sustainable credentials have been recognised by this year’s Housing Design Awards. Winner of the Large Housebuilder category was Oxley Woods in Milton Keynes – a 78 homes scheme built by Taylor Wimpey and designed... more
Source: Ben Hall / H&V News