Housing
The Homelessness Monitor: Scotland 2021
Author / Creator: Beth Watts
Media type: Assessment report
Date published: 2021
Rates of core homelessness are substantially lower in Scotland (0.57% of households) than in England (0.94%) and Wales (0.66%). In March 2021, the numbers in temporary housing stood at over 13,000. This is well above the previous peak of 11,665 a year before.
A new housing settlement
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: 2020
There is so much wrong with our housing system, from needless homelessness to spiralling costs (which have shut a generation out of housing) to over-mortgaged homeowners struggling financially to the sheer environmental inefficiency of much of the housing we build to the failure to build homes how and where communities need rather than where a developer can make most money.
Housing 2040 Consultation Response
Author / Creator: Malcolm Fraser
Media type: consultation response
Date published:
A good home and community as a human right, is a font of wellbeing. It is not simply an outcome of wealth-creation. To deliver this covers a wide range of policy areas including:
- Existing buildings,
- land and planning,
- regeneration,
- finance,
- leadership,
- diversification,
- technology and materials, and
- tax and wealth.
Scottish Building Regulations: Review of Energy Standards
Author / Creator: Linda Pearson
Media type: consultation response
Date published:
All new buildings in Scotland should be constructed to passive and zero-carbon standards. All buildings should be surveyed immediately and assessed on their maximum feasible retrofitting potential. They should then be scheduled to be retrofitted to that potential in a single project.
Energy Performance Certificates: An Alternative Approach
Author / Creator: Keith Baker
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published:
There is an urgent need to understand the highly significant uncertainties around both the ratings and the appropriateness of the improvements recommended by EPC assessments. The alternative approach is based on the fundamental principle of maximising the use of real data in order to provide buyers and tenants with accurate, robust, relevant, and useful information.
The Future of Low Carbon Heat For Off-Gas Buildings
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published:
The primary barrier to the roll-out of low carbon heat is financial. Efficient schemes will have to be government financed. Biofuels may play a significant role in rural heating where they can seamlessly replace off-grid heating without the need to install new infrastructure.
Energy Efficient Scotland Consultation
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: consultation response
Date published: June 2019
Energy Performance Certificates are inadequate due to the severe shortfalls in the methodology. Mandatory improvements should be made when there are changes. Collective energy efficiency improvements such as installing heat networks or the economies of scale can only be done by collective action at government level.