To think the long term solution to the heating crisis is for families to live in apartments rather than houses?

[misspontypine]

I have been reading the recent threads about the large number of families who can't afford to heat their homes.

It makes me so sad to think of people especially young children being cold in their own homes :(

I live in a very cold country (winter temps are bellow freezing for months and months and months and bloody months often below -10 and sometimes below -20. No matter what the weather homes are usually between 20 and 23 degrees and they are never ever colder that 18 degrees.

The difference between here and the UK seems to be that most families live in apartments or small houses. Everyone we know lives in a home with no spare bedrooms, I don't know anyone who has a dining room, the dining table is in the kitched or the living room. The homes here are generally much smaller with much less wasted space then English homes. (I do live in a capital city and I think there is a differance when you go out to the countryside.)

It would be seen as very illogical here to live in a house that you can't afford to heat. If a family had for example a 2 bedroom house that they couldn't heat they would move to a one bedroom apartment and the parents would sleep in the livingroom.

We live in a one bedrom apartment and our dc sleeps in our room, we plan on doint this untill he is 5ish.

I know that moving costs money but should the longterm solution to the heating cost problem be that families are encouraged to live in much smaller homes so that the heating and rent/mortgage is not so expensive and hopefully nobody is cold in their own home?

I thought I heard on radio recently that, at least with new build properties, our houses are smaller than those on the continent, in terms of square footage. Which is why families with two cars always have one on the drive and one on the roadside, because the garage is used for storing stuff they can't fit in the house.

fine if we move to a dicatorship which then knocks down most of our housing stock and rebuilds in layers.

hopefully not.

I would boil if my house was 23 degrees year round!

Our houses are the smallest in Europe

There is a big difference in living in a 'very cold country' to living in a climate that gets cold but only dangerously so for a matter of weeks each year, if that.

More sensible use of resources would be a start. We have spare rooms but I turn the radiators on in those not used regularly which our Christmas visitors love as I often forget to turn them back on.

You are kidding, right? With all the moans about noisy neighbours we already have? I don't know where you live but is it the same? A complete intolerance for any noise at all? toe to toe rows over a washing machine or a child running across a room? From what I read, it's miserable living in flats.

british homes the smallest in europe

I live in an "apartment". Like most "apartments" in this area it was built circa 1900 and is very cold.

The heating crisis isn't really a question of people living in properties that are too big for them (that will apply to precious few people). The problem lies with a) the extortionate cost of heating (I have also lived in a very cold country, and I could pay my energy bills there with the change in my drawer) and b) very poor standard of insulation. By and large only owner-occupiers have the means and authority to do something about poor energy efficiency. I feel sorry for people who rent their homes. They're really getting stiffed.

Yes! I would love to move to a one bedroom apartment and sleep in the living room, because previous governments were crap at energy planning!

Let's do that right now, it sounds great. Especially with the huge surplus of one bedroom accommodation that's available, as proved by the Bedroom Tax situation.

In an apartment, with their adult children who can't get on the property ladder and with their elderly parents who we are neglecting? At least with all those bodies in one flat you might be able to put the heating on less.

Some councils no longer allow families to be housed in flats, so they seem to have very different ideas to you. It seems a ridiculous rule to me, but there you have it.

I don't see space for a table as wasted. It's not just for eating, but for drawing, homework, covering with lego or any number of activities beneficial to children or families.

And the vast majority of people who cannot afford to heat their houses are not rattling around in houses with lots of spare bedrooms.

I live out in a village in a 2 up 2 down terrace. Having houses either side definitely helps to keep it warmer, but when we're being battered by the cold, damp winds straight off the North Sea, that heating needs to be on, or else, never mind the cold hands and noses, everything gets damp.

I struggle to afford to heat my home. I live in the smallest house ever. Just a living room and kitchen. Then 2 bedrooms and a box. Youngest dc sleeps with me. Moving to somewhere smaller would mean moving to a rabbit hutch.

Also, how do I find the £600+ need for deposit, etc.

Quite a patronising post tbh op.

In China, I believe that there is one city built almost entirely underground, purely down to the temperature. Nice and warm down there. Now, there's a solution. Live underground, lots of nice views and greenbelt on the surface!

Been to China wouldn't live there, under or over ground!

I live in a council flat 2 bedrooms, with my two teenagers, i sleep in the lounge, its bloody freezing because of the rubbish insulation and because i cant afford to heat it,I lost my job18months go and am on JSA, last winter we sat under duvets on the sofas and wore clothes to bed, this winter will be worse, at the momet i could put the heating on for 30 mins a day but i dont as im saving any credit on prepayment meter for when it drops below o. It really is a choice between heat and eat here.

I'm in the UK, we moved from a house to a flat (its not permanent otherwise I'd go insane), we pay more in energy costs now. Because as well as paying for inefficient electric oil radiators due to there being no central heating, we also have to run dehumidifiers constantly throughout the winter because of damp which is a major issue when you live in a flat (there is just nowhere for moisture to escape unless you open the windows constantly, something I never thought about in a house).

Yikes NO! What about a garden in the summer when it is lovely and warm?

apartments can cost a lot in management charges and ground rent, I know someone paying £2K a year for these. Swings and roundabouts?

I live in a two bedroom flat. It was built in the fifties or sixties - no double glazing and poor insulation. It's colder than my parents 4 bedroom semi. If you put the heating on for an hour at 6am, the flat is freezing cold again at 8.30. We rely on blankets and hot water bottles, because having the heating on 12-14 hours a day just isn't sustainable, but it's the only way to keep the place properly warm.

My parents, on the other hand, have a new-build (circa 2000) four-bed semi. It's never cold and the place stays warm for hours with the heating on for an hour or so in the morning and a few hours at night. The reason being good insulation, double-glazing etc.

The problem isn't huge houses, it's expensive fuel, poor insulation and a minimum wage that is FAR too low for people to live on and be comfortable.

summer? what is this summer of which you speak?

Also, this summer, it was horrific. No air circulation, and even with fans, blinds closed etc etc it was like a sauna from 11am-9pm. It was still hot all night and it just wasn't enjoyable at all.

We're here because rent is cheap, but if we want to keep it warm, it costs a small fortune!

It is amazing that homes can be heated to 20 degrees in a cold weather country. How does this work? Have you tried privatisation? I don't understand...

I think rather than stacking people in apartments it would be eminently more sensible to ensure that houses are insulated properly.

I live in a stone built cottage with a modern (post 2000) extension the old part of my house warms up quickly (and retains the heat) the new part of the house never seems to hold the temperature the same. We have good double glazing and insulated lofts.

Ha well I'm done for then because I've just moved into an even bigger house!

I live in a flat the size of a stamp cut in half and still struggle to afford heating.

Our houses are freezing not because of their "massive" size, but because they are built really badly, by stingy developers. So many of them have NO insulation. Plenty of people's heating simply pours though the roofs and the walls.