to think all new-builds should be passivhauses?

[ParsingFancy]

Heating bill £20 a year. Looks like a normal house.

What's not to like?

And it's not rocket science: they're just houses where insulation and ventilation have been thought about at the beginning, rather than being an incomplete afterthought.

Additional cost over building non-passivhaus: £20K.

Actually it's a while since I was up to date with this stuff. IIRC, if the UK decided not to go for the full PH standard, there's a silver standard which still exceeds current achievements.

But someone may tell me that's now actually on the cards here.

"Pass law requiring 20% of new builds to be self builds and not only would it make housing more affordable, but average build quality would go up"

The economics of land use in this country would make that an almost impossible dream not to mention the huge delays inherent in the majority of self build projects.

I say this with some sadness, as an architect who is all in favour of individualism and creativity in housebuilding.

Unfortunately, very few housebuilders employ architects, most modern housing developments are 'designed' by technicians and cost managers.

What are the "economics of land use" Pendeen that enable extensive self build in a country like Belgium with a great population desnity?

The planning system in this country is actually pretty dire. Land use is extremely wasteful, compared to The Netherlands, where 3 storey, terraced houses are far more common. And no-one does research into the effects on society and activity levels by encouraging people to live in vast new build housing estates, cut off from local facilities and designed to encourage access by car in the main.

Delays are already adequately covered by building warrants and planning permission being time limited, but if they are inadequate, they can be changed. Unfortunately the present mass zoning system encourages big developers to buy up land with hope value and leave it doing nothing for decades.

Precisely.

Your question on the "economics of land use" - a few pointers:

The choice of housing type by most people in the UK is fundamentally different from your example (Belgium). One would have to envisage removing freedom of choice significantly and forcing people into European-style densities which would not be at all popular. This, choice however will probably be eroded significantly by a quite different and sinister development - watch the financial press...

Land ownership patterns and therefore finance / economics are also fundamentally different from Europe including the relative proportion of owner occupation to overall stock. A further complication is the historic (and hitherto entrenched) lack of interest in rented housing by the large international financial institutions (althought watch out for imminent seismic shifts in the situation as and when the government's hidden agenda re private vs social housing starts to emerge).

The availability of mortgage funds for individuals and their relationship to land / house prices. This may soon be irrelevant however.

Traditionally low access to land by developers is being reduced by changes to the planning system plus - watch this space again and remember you read it here first - the selling off of many parcels of land hitherto used for the benefit of the state (i.e. us). Some examples of this are: privatisation of MOD housing, forced disposal of local authority properties and the frantic and aggressive push to convert schools to so-called Academy status.

On the subject of delays - my point was not really about the inbuilt time lag within the statutory approvals process (planning, building regulations etc) but more around the typical construction time for self builds when compared with large contractors and developers (assuming we are discusing similar methods of construction). The other point missed by many is that the degree of sophistication needed from constructors to build many of the more advanced ecohouses is far beyond the average self builder even if they use sub contractors to a significant degree, which anyway is almost inevitable given the extensive need for testing and certification required bu the building regulations.

Overall dangerous, stressful and turbulent times ahead for housing (and architecture /construction in general) and a most interesting debate.

Oh, BTW, I gather by your reference to 'building warrants' you are in Scotland?

Not sure of the details but my sisters house has this, the whole recycled heat through a ventilation system thingy, plus underfloor heating. its huge but always warm and doesn't cost hardly anything.

I am

If I had the money I'd fit it in our house! Besides the benefit to the home owner, just imagine the benefit to the environment of everyone did it!

Pendeen The choice of housing type by most people in the UK is fundamentally different from your example (Belgium). One would have to envisage removing freedom of choice significantly and forcing people into European-style densities which would not be at all popular. This, choice however will probably be eroded significantly by a quite different and sinister development - watch the financial press

Sorry, but that's just not correct. Hordes of people in the UK live in tiny flats, and I'm currently in Belgium, where hordes of people live in large houses. Perhaps in architecture, you get a lecture on how renting is common in Germany, but fail to study what is actually going on in other countries which could offer a viable alternative to the mess that the UK is currently becoming? I have friends in Holland who don't have especially high flying jobs, who own 4 bedroom large comfortable houses, albeit not detached but still with a garden. I think on the same salary level here in the UK, they would maybe have a 2 bedroom flat, if they were lucky.

Your post reads as being heavily influenced by an agenda of keeping the status quo, and of not really thinking about what you believe, but following a given line. Which appears to be that people are not to be trusted to make decisions about housing themselves, even when part of a strict legal regime, but must have decisions imposed upon them by those who make profit from doing so. When you actually think about it, land use in the UK is terribly wasteful compared to most countries in Europe. There is no reason why this should not be challenged effectively, so as to give people not only more choice, but greater freedom too.

I found your comments on self build really condescending. You appear to be suggesting that the British are too incapable of self building, in a way that other nations are not.

LessMissAbs

An 'interesting' set of opinions but quite wide of the mark and with little if no grounding in fact. Your personal experience does not reflect the general situation (nor indeed my personal experience).

You also appear to have completely misunderstood my points about the imminent changes in large scale financing of property development, land use and the potential effects on the long term stability of this country.

Your third paragraph is ludicrous.

My comments on self build were not at all "condescending" but instead based on detailed knowledge and real life experience of what it takes to construct an 'ecohouse' (passivhaus being just one example) and their concimitant statutory obligations within the UK. Nowhere do I suggest that the British are any less capable of self building than other nations although I have been called in on several occasions to sort out the mess over confident self builders have got themselves into. Nice fees admittedly but often very traumatic for those involved.

BTW: YANBU.
We will look back in a very few years when we are paying financially and in lifestyle for our behaviour and wonder what we were all doing. We can't change what we have (19thC heat leaking house here) but we darnded well should be ultra-planning for the future.

When we price these things we are doing it all wrong not building the future cost of fuel and its cost to our environment into the total. Our grandchildren will not thank us.

Pendeen - your posts make very interesting reading, thank you for giving an "industry" perspective . Just out of curiosity, what "imminent seismic shift" do you anticipate will happen, and what agenda do you believe it will serve?