'A greener home for all' @ Radio 4's Costing the Earth >>> Can we build lots more houses quickly and cheaply without destroying the environment?

There is a 'housing crisis' and we need to build 300k new houses every year:
Budget 2017 in brief: £44bn for 300,000 new homes a year | News | The Times
Budget 2017: Does England need 300,000 new homes a year? - BBC News

BioRegional's projects such as BedZed: zero carbon housing was promised for 2016:
BedZED - Bioregional
Futures Forum: Plans for Port Royal: ideas for 'mixed use' projects >>> the Beddington Zero Energy Development
Futures Forum: Plans for Port Royal and the Eastern Town >>> apartments over car parks

Housing produces 27% of our carbon emissions:
What's the carbon footprint of ... a house | Environment | The Guardian
Carbon dioxide in construction - Designing Buildings Wiki

and another quarter is transport - much of driving from homes with no public transport:
Reducing Your Transportation Footprint — Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Why use public transport | Sustrans
How to green your commute: Carpooling and public transit | MNN - Mother Nature Network

The UK Green Building Council is pushing for higher standards:
UKGBC Announces Key Manifesto Recommendations - UKGBC - UK Green Building Council
UK Green Building Council Release Recommendations for New Government Manifesto - Greenfish Consulting

The Housebuiders' Federation did not 'conspire' to drop the 2016 zero-carbon housing target:
UK scraps zero carbon homes plan | Environment | The Guardian
Government ditches zero carbon targets – CIBSE Journal
Why the zero-carbon homes policy hasn't gone to plan - The Conversation

The Beacon in Hemel Hempstead means that residents will have no energy bulls - which is one up on the PassivHaus:
A life off-grid with no energy bills is closer than you think. Here’s what the future has in store for sustainable homes | City A.M.
High ambition – The Beacon, Hemel Hempstead | netMAGmedia Ltd
UK Development Dubbed 'The World's Most Sustainable Residential Tower' - The Urban Dweller
The Beacon – Eco Friendly Apartments, Flats & houses for sale in Hemel Hempstead, UK - YouTube

The CPRE feels that there had been no need to build on green fields - and asks a few questions...... Are we building the right sort of housing? With the right sort of density living? Which is affordable and meeting 'genuine local need'?
Larkin was right: we risk destroying England - Campaign to Protect Rural England
Developers renege on affordable homes as countryside faces housing crisis - Campaign to Protect Rural England
Brownfield sites have room for 1m homes, says charity | News | The Times

Allotments are very desirable little and not so little potential building plots:
We must resist the great allotment land grab | Rose George | Opinion | The Guardian
Help, developers are threatening my allotment - Telegraph

Quick and easy housing solutions might mean shipping containers - from QED, providing housing for the homeless - which uses 'off-site' production:
Through the keyhole: Inside the homes made from shipping containers that will soon house homeless in Brighton | Daily Mail Online
The charity that houses homeless people in shipping containers | Housing Network | The Guardian
Shipping containers transform into emergency housing for the homeless in London - Curbed
UK's biggest shipping container village opens up for homeless people | The Big Issue

The charity Empty Homes points out that hundreds of thousands of properties are unoccupied:
Number of empty homes hits highest rate for 20 years calling into question need to build on countryside - Telegraph
Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done - The Conversation
Why are so many British homes empty? - BBC News

The Wildlife Trusts point out that 'new green spaces' can happen with developments - for example at the new build of Cambourne near Cambridge:
Wildlife Trusts calls for new housing 'to restore nature' - BBC News
A Vision for Housing and Nature | The Wildlife Trusts
Eco-towns: The new town that got back to nature | The Independent

All of this is considered on the latest 'Costing the Earth' on Radio 4:

A Greener Home For All

Costing the Earth

13 March 2018

Our homes and their construction have a huge impact on the environment. The construction industry is estimated to contribute to 40% of worldwide energy use and in the UK alone the building sector uses more than 400 million tons of material a year, many of which have an adverse impact on the environment. Added to this is the impact on local air quality and green spaces and the energy used in heating, lighting and even furnishing new homes.

The government has set a target of 300,000 new homes a year to help solve the growing housing crisis but this figure is nearly double the current rate of building. So is there anyway we can solve the housing crisis without nearly doubling our emissions? Tom Heap sets out to find out where, what and how we could build affordable and green homes for all.

BBC Radio 4 - Costing the Earth, A Greener Home For All
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