I totally feel for this guy. But the real crime here is successive governments that have completely failed in holding the housebuilders to account with tougher specs for new build houses.
Why the hell a 2020 newbuild house needs any space heating at all is beyond me. Should just be passive, with electric heater for the shower.
The big picture is that we are shipping great wealth to fuel-producing countries because politicians are too lazy or corrupt to insist on modern building methods and standards that are properly enforced.
Lobbying from Big House. They say it’ll raise the cost of new builds but they don’t mention the lower running costs. If you factor in the way such measures would kickstart the green home energy industry (with more quality jobs), reduce the cost of such measures thanks to economies of scale and leave us less beholden to the whims of the energy producers, it would be a net gain.
Unfortunately, if Starmer tries it, he’ll be hammered with “Keir makes buying a house more expensive” headlines and he is already being given a kicking in the right wing press. However, if he also announced a Green New Deal with improvements to the poorest households he could claw back some favour from the public (and further boost jobs) but where would the money come from? I’d like a few more windfall taxes on energy companies and it’d be popular.