To think in a cold damp climate there is only so much we can possibly change?

[SamBeckettslastleap]

Fuck you Jeremy.

I have layers I have hats, we have covers on the sofas to hide under. I'm not even cold with these measures.

But the house is damp, every morning I am wiping water and mould. I've had to put the heating on to try and stave it off.

Don't tell me to cut down my meagre use when your friends light tennis courts and heat swimming pools.

@lieselotte

As ever, Scandinavia leads the way https://www.rehva.eu/rehva-journal/chapter/geothermal-energy-use-in-the-nordic-countries

YANBU, Op.

UK offshore wind is now 9 times cheaper than gas. link The technologies have improved so much. Turbines are also quicker to install than nuclear. Fossil fuels were subsidised to the tune of $700bn globally link.

A green energy transition is a total win-win for households who get better insulation, cheaper bills, UK energy brings more jobs, we do what we need to for the environment (that we depend on completely to stay alive).

@JackTorrance I would agree with you that classifying anyone earning £45k as "wealthy" and taxing them more is not the solution. A person earning £45k in London who has a family might be struggling to make ends meet. In Scotland I do not know much about the cost of living, but I can imagine that a family on £45k would be doing OK but certainly not "wealthy."

However, a private investor earning capital gains of £1 million in a year will have that taxed at only 20 percent, while a professional earning £60k in England will pay 28 percent including National Insurance. Furthermore, the private investor can avoid paying any tax at all by borrowing against their portfolio without selling any assets, thereby not realising any taxable capital gains. This is what we need to fix.

A high earner earning £1 million will have most of it taxed at 45 percent, plus National Insurance, so almost 50 percent. I think that is probably about right. But the person who earns £1 million for not working is undertaxed. I realise there is a story about how taxing them more might cause them all to leave the UK, but I do not quite believe it, so long as there is not a huge uncertainty with potentially infinite rises in their tax rate.

It is also noteworthy that a private equity investment manager gets to receive most of their compensation as "carried interest", which is taxed like capital gains at 20 percent, even though they did not have to put a proportionate amount of their own capital at risk in order to earn that carried interest. This is another loophole that needs to be closed or at least narrowed. I suppose there is a greater risk, here, that these people would move for tax optimisation purposes, but a lot of them may also be receiving a big portion of their carried interest offshore anyway so that it is not taxed at all.

If we'd actually invested properly in renewable energy and insulated properly we wouldn't be in this mess.

And China's moving faster than we are away from fossil fuels.

Excellent post!👍

JFC there is nothing, nothing 'ideological' about net zero. Batshit conspiracy mongering.

If you don't like facts of evidence, for sure.

Awwww Jesus Christ, I didn't think you could fit that much ignorance into one post but there you go. 😂😂😂

Tell me you know nothing about climate science, environmental policy, energy policy, energy security, fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions without telling me.....

I'm not going to bother with the environmental aspects as I can see your mind is made up on that issue, regardless of the science, but there are a number of other reasons fracking, nuclear, coal, etc won't solve the issues.

Franking isn't a magic bullet despite what the torys and daily mail want you to think. Not only would it take years to develop the infrastructure, at God knows what cost, but it would be highly unlikely to ever be economical viable in the UK due to our geology and the location of the deposits. Fracking is also the energy equivalent of wringing out a sponge to get a final few drops of water, it's not a long-term solution, even if you could find a way turn a profit.

Nuclear isn't any better in terms of energy security. 45% of the world's uranium supply comes from Kazakhstan and they're firmly aligned away from western interests. Even if we could source a steady supply of uranium ore the UK simply doesn't have the facilities or expertise to turn it into fuel rods for nuclear reactors. You'd be looking at tying the UK into decades long supply dependecies with foreign governments until we built the capacity, so bang goes any energy security. Oh and one of the major player in that field is Russia with around 40% of the capacity and operational facilities for turning ore into fuel rods.

Coal mining is just laughable really not only would you need to try and reverse 4 decades of government policy but you'd be much more likely to see an increase in your energy costs than a decrease. Deep coal was uncompetitive in the 80s, its not competitive now.

The short of it is successive governments failed to invest in energy security and infrastructure when times were good and now we're fucked.

YANBU, and I think at this point we actually need to redesign and rebuild most of the UK's housing stock. We can't keep patching things up.

@YankeeDad if we're talking those levels of wealth and income then absolutely, don't disgree with you at all.
I'd just be concerned that in practice they seem to prefer to go after the middle-income earners and not their mates.

The man is an absolute prick. He is so detached from reality it’s not even funny. A nasty piece of work.

people will die from the cold this winter and there he is saying that in this day and age we need to just get used to cold, damp homes.

it’s absolute madness. It’s so far beyond the liz/Kwasi shitshow I just don’t know how and why people aren’t calling for his head.

This.

In the space of 4 weeks we have mould on our bathroom ceiling, wall, shower curtain and blind. We open the window all day and dry used towels on the airer in bedrooms. I was sat on the loo this morning and smelt damp.

I think I may have phrased this somewhat incorrectly!!!

I better understand the value of a dehumidifier. Thanks to those for explaining the science behind it. I will make more use out of mine now.

Unfortunately he's right.

If we are to achieve net zero by 2040, we have to reduce usage. Obviously not in the next six weeks, but it has to happen.

I've spent the last 10 years renovating a house. I've replaced windows and doors, doubled the insulation, added a log burner, made and fitted thermal lined curtains, sorted damp and draughts. Plus a grey water system

It hasn't been cheap but my usage has dropped by 60%. Solar panels next year should push it down by another 20%. By the time I retire, the last thing to do will be to replace the gas boiler with some sort of ground source heat pump.

YANBU. We need a minister for renovation, who delivers standards, priorities, low cost finance and common pricing for insulation & installation. No more cowboys taking advantage of people.

50% of our housing stock needs upgrading and the government needs to take it seriously or people will struggle more and more.

It took the LA six years to sort out my Sister’s 1960’s damp flat, it’s ground floor and the damp course had disintegrated, they remedied that and added a dehumidifier to her living room wall but only after most of her furniture, carpets and clothes were destroyed, her bedroom was so bad at one point that she slept on a mattress on the living room floor, when we took it up, the underside was wet and black with mould. She’s asthmatic and now has copd. They refused her any compensation for the ruined goods and only fixed the problem after a disability rights charity got involved.
Social landlords could easily give /loan people dehumdifiers, £150 against potentially thousands of £££s of remedial work.

Yes, housing stock needs updating not just for the cold / damp / low energy use, but also for the extremes of heat we will now be getting (remember all that in the summer?! Feels like a lifetime ago but will soon be back round again). Our buildings certainly aren't designed for that either.

We have mould everywhere now. I wipe religiously. Today we had to throw out a fabric chair and a curtain from DSs room. He now has a sheet. We have had to turn on the heating but it's going to fuck up our finances.

If we are to achieve net zero by 2040, we have to reduce usage. Obviously not in the next six weeks, but it has to happen.

Lucky you being able to afford to renovate your home to such a high standard, no wonder you're supportive of the net zero target.

Even a small dehumidifier in his room
might help? We bought them for our student children and have a more powerful one for our home.

I am not sure this is right. Electric unit prices may be more than gas but the dehumidifier won’t use nearly so many units as having the heating does gas units. It’s not a case of choosing between gas and electric and everything drawing the same amount of power an hour at all

My electric use is up about 1 kWh a day now it’s late autumn compared to summer. Some of that is having a dehumidifier on about 12 hours a day and some of it is using more lighting etc. Might be using the oven a bit more because I fancy warm food more often. Anyway the difference a month is there but isn’t huge. It’s not anything close to what it would be for having the heating on a lot.

This is what happens when we keep electing greedy governments that want to abolish 'all the regulations holding us back'. Health & Safety, Building Standards, Rent Controls, all kinds of 'red tape we don't need'. Most of the protections people fought for have been dismantled since 1979. Unions? Who needs them either? World laughing stock.