Green housing target raises property eyebrows
Mortgage advisers believe current targets to reduce the carbon output of Britain's homes are unlikely to be met.The government has said it wants to achieve a 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.According to government figures 27 per cent of the country's emissions come from people's homes, making green improvements within the home vital in meeting the overall goal.From June 1st this year all new homes will have to pass an energy performance certificate (EPC), part of the controversial home information pack (Hip).Today a survey of mortgage advisers has warned that the anti-energy wastage initiative, which demands that all new properties become carbon neutral, is unlikely to be met by the government's self-imposed deadline of 2016.The fault does not lie with constructors, however. Instead it is the residents of the new properties who are likely to be at fault, the survey from mortgage lender UCB Home Loans reveals.Over two-thirds of mortgage advisers said the 2016 target was unlikely to be met, while more than nine in ten mortgage advisers said they believed homeowners did not know how to either measure or reduce their carbon output."Both lenders and homeowners need to devote greater attention to reducing energy wastage, and this is evidenced by the fact that all homes going on the market after June 1st will have their energy rating graded in the new EPCs," UCB Home Loans' managing director, Keith Astill, said.Less than 30 homes in the UK are currently carbon neutral, the mortgage lender said.
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