Green Party launches RetroFirst-inspired petition to cut VAT
The Green Party is calling for VAT on refurbishment to be slashed to 0 per cent in a new Parliamentary petition partly inspired by the AJ’s RetroFirst campaign
A petition on the Downing Street website calls on the government to effectively remove VAT on refurbishment projects – which would have been impossible while the UK was within the EU – and raise VAT on non-Passivhaus new-build construction to 20 per cent.
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The government has to respond to any petition that gets above 10,000 signatures. At the time of writing, the petition, launched last week (8 February) by the party’s finance spokesperson, Molly Scott Cato, had amassed more than 1,300 signatures in less than a week.
Foster + Partners designs Coral Bloom resort on Saudi Arabian island
The Red Sea Project has revealed images of a resort designed by Foster + Partners to blend in with the natural environment of a Saudi Arabian island within the Red Sea.
Coral Bloom will be made up of 11 hotels on the dolphin-shaped island of Shurayrah, which is part of a chain of 90 undeveloped islands off the west coast of Saudi Arabia that are being developed as part of The Red Sea Project.
Foster + Partners is designing 11 hotels on the island of Shurayrah
Informed by the forms of native Saudi Arabian flowers and coral, the resort was designed to be a hub for the wider development and one of the first places that tourists visiting the development will see.
Government sets out targets for new Future Homes Standard
The government has set out its plans and timeframe for its new Future Homes Standard which aims to radically improve the energy performance of new homes, making them zero carbon ready by 2025
The 114-page consultation response to proposed changes to Parts L (energy) and F (ventilation) of the Building Regulations sets out how, within four years, new housing must produce 75-80 per cent less carbon emissions than allowed under the current regulations.
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As a first step, from 2021 all new homes will be expected to produce 31 per cent lower carbon emissions as part of an ‘interim uplift’ in Part L standards
By Elizabeth Hopkirk2021-01-20T13:24:00+00:00
Architects criticise government’s Future Homes Standard response for ‘falling significantly short’
Architects have criticised the government’s response to the Future Homes Standard consultation, saying it does not mention embodied carbon once in 114 pages.
But they welcomed some of the revisions the government has proposed, saying it had listened to concerns they had raised previously.
The government’s response, published yesterday, centres on energy efficiency improvements that will be implemented on new homes through Parts L (energy) and F (ventilation) of the Building Regulations.
Architect Seb Laan Lomas, coordinator of the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN)’s embodied carbon group, said the government had recognised the clamour for embodied carbon to be part of the Future Homes Standard (FHS) but that its response was inadequate.