The Scottish Greens will today set
out their plans to eliminate homelessness and fuel poverty in Scotland, calling for
30,000 new social rented homes and improved energy
efficiency in the country’s homes.
Patrick Harvie, the Greens
speaker on communities, who will address an event organised by the Chartered
Institute for Housing and Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said: “No
one in Scotland today should want for a
warm, decent home. We need many more homes for social rent, but this alone will
not resolve housing problems. We also need a change of culture to ensure that
social rent is no longer seen as a last resort and that better use is made of
existing stock.”
The Greens manifesto also calls for
the setting of binding targets to improve the overall energy efficiency of
housing by 40 per cent by 2020, and to enhance building standards for improved
energy efficiency. It will apply the 'passive house' standard to ensure that new
buildings are zero carbon in use from 2011.
It also calls for no Scottish home
to fall below the NHER 7 standard, a national home energy rating of good, by
2016.
Harvie said: “Energy efficiency is a
must – and this will tackle both fuel poverty and climate change. Greens also
want to see more family homes for rent and new ways of helping people own or
part-own their home. Good homes lead to good health, and helps everyone,
especially the young and vulnerable, lead fuller
lives.
“In the last parliamentary session,
Greens proposed bills to improve energy efficiency in homes and make it easier
for householders to install green energy devices so that they can generate their
own energy.”
He added that a participative
planning system, and the replacement of the council tax with a land value tax,
would help address the problems of land supply by bringing disused building and
land back into use.
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