Double Glazing and Eco Towns in the UK
The UK government has backed a proposed plan to build environmentally friendly ‘eco towns’ in areas of the UK such as Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Hampshire, Portsmouth and Bournemouth.
The towns, which will be built with the UK’s pledge to cut carbon emission by 2050, will use home improvement measures such as double glazing in order to make sure that the properties have as low a carbon footprint as possible.
This news follows the government’s pledge to offer homeowners ‘Green Mortgages’, which are designed to enable them to finance home improvement projects, ranging from the commonplace, such as new window and double glazing installations to those which up until recently were considered top be unattainable for more UK home owners, projects such as solar panel installation, bio-fuel projects, the installation of wind turbines and so on.
For double glazing companies such as Everest and Anglian Windows, Staybrite and Zenith windows, the government’s move to financially reword homeowners who adopt environmentally friendly home improvement packages may seem a rather watered down act, considering the direct financial support that has been offered to other UK industries hit hard by the global downturn, most notable the car industry.
However, for homeowners, it seems a good deal, as the link between home improvements and the possibility of resale has been shown by many recent reports. Taking a house to market which is as energy efficient as possible now makes direct financial sense, not least because of the stamp duty which the government plans to introduce on homes who fail to meet up to energy saving standards.
