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Poll reveals how British people think their homes will be powered in the future
A wind turbine in the garden and electronic devices driven by exercise equipment are some of the revolutionary changes home owners in the UK can look forward to according to a new poll. Home owners certainly see homes being powered in a very different way from the current reliance on electricity from the national grid. A survey conducted by Gocompare Energy reveals that people think that in the future there will be wind turbines in gardens creating a personal power supply and little water turbines in gutter pipes and bathroom drains to harness further power. Other ideas that could become a reality include homes being roofed with tiles that have inbuilt solar technology while some of the more whacky ideas include floorboards that harvest energy as you walk across them. The poll asked if people thought that there would be changes in the way homes are powered in the future and the vast majority, 91%, stated that they thought there would. Of these, 84% believed power would come from ‘more sustainable sources’, with a further 61% believing that UK homes will become more ‘self-sufficient and independent’. Some 9% believed that homes will not be powered by any mains gas or electricity at all in the future. Some 55% thought appliances will be powered by exercise devices in the home, 51% believed that energy could be harnesses from water flowing through household drains and 43% thought gutters could generate power when it rains. Another 39% could believe that all roof tiles will automatically harness power from the sun and 22% could foresee a future with a wind turbine attached to every home while 14% thought flooring could be used to generate energy. In addition to these, 8% of respondents believed that certain modern gadgets that require a lot of energy would be banned in the future, including appliances such as kettles and washing machines and overall a third of respondents believed that these predictions could come into effect as soon as 2020. ‘It’s been fascinating to see what energy innovations people think we could see in our homes in the future. It’s no wonder that we are starting to see more people considering the sustainability of our power sources but that’s not to say that washing machines are going to be outlawed any time soon. If anything, they will just become more energy efficient,’ said Ben Wilson, an energy expert at Gocompare Energy. ‘What’s particularly interesting is that some of these predictions aren’t necessarily that farfetched. I could well envisage a workout station where you can charge your mobile phone while you work up a sweat, or the advance of solar technology to make it all a little more aesthetically pleasing for UK rooftops,’ he explained. ‘The industry is fast paced and alternative and renewable energy providers are constantly looking for new ways to generate power, so I could see some of these coming to British homes very soon,’ he… Continue reading
Research shows majority of UK parliamentarians support planning fees rise
Some 61% of MPs in the UK broadly agree that planning fees should increase and almost half 47%, say they should increase with stronger guarantees on planning performance. Indeed, MPS from all political parties support fees being changed, according to a new poll commissioned by the British Property Federation (BPF). Some 65% from the Labour party and 61% from the Conservative party support an increase in fees. The BPF says that the results show that Parliamentarians recognise that there is a problem, alongside the property industry and local authorities. The BPF and GL Hearn’s 2015 Annual Planning Survey revealed that 55% of local planning authorities perceived under resourcing to be a significant challenge, and that 65% of applicants are happy to pay more to shorten waiting times. The government has taken some steps to address this problem, proposing to allow local authorities to outsource the processing of planning applications and to reward well performing local authorities by allowing them to increase planning fees by an inflationary increase, but the BPF has warned that these steps will not go far enough. Responding to a government consultation on the technical planning changes set out in the Housing and Planning Bill, the BPF has welcomed the government’s recognition of the fact that local authorities ‘are struggling to provide the service required by applicants’, but cautions that the measures suggested will not be enough to plug the skills gap. ‘The public and private sectors have both been very clear about the need for more resourcing in local authority planning departments, and we now know that there is political understanding of this issue as well,’ said Melanie Leech, BPF chief executive. ‘We are supportive of the small steps that government is taking to address this, but are not holding out hope for any great impact. Some local authority planning departments are simply short staffed, putting those who remain under enormous strain,’ she explained. ‘Outsourcing the processing of planning applications is likely to relieve this burden to an extent, but it is not going to solve the chronic shortage of skills and resource that is the true problem,’ she added. Meanwhile, land broker Aston Mead is advising councils without up to date local housing plans in place to act quickly before the Government steps in to write their plans for them. Local authorities have been given until March 2017 to produce a local plan in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which was introduced in 2012. However, with less than a year to go, recent research suggests that fewer than a third of local planning authorities outside London have an up to date NPPF compliant plan. ‘It’s absolutely incredible that with the deadline looming large on the horizon, so few councils have got their act together. By next year they will have had five years since the introduction of the NPPF and yet the vast majority have still to… Continue reading
The growth of London house prices has slowed down, new data suggests
London house price growth has slowed in the first quarter of 2016 and is now nearly three times lower than it was in the last quarter of 2015, new research shows. The London market recorded price growth of 1.2% in the first three months of the year while nearby regions have seen higher price growth, according to the latest UK House Market report from the Lancaster University Management School. For example, the Outer Metropolitan area has seen price growth of 3.1%, Outer South East 2.5% and East Anglia 4.1%, the data from the report shows. The report says that this is in line with the so-called ripple effect, suggesting that substantial house price increases in London over the last few years spread out to surrounding regions over time and have a leading effect on the UK housing market. It suggests that the slowing growth in the London property market has coincided with two factors, possibly working in opposite directions: an increase in the uncertainty of global economic conditions, especially in the East, and the run-up to the introduction on the 01 of April of extra 3% stamp duty on additional property purchases. The Observatory has been set up to monitor for signs of exuberance in prices in the UK regions, and releases its analysis each quarter alongside the house price data. Continue reading
