Reeves plan to tax houses over 500k PART TWO

[soupyspoon]

I am not the OP from the OP!

So a very narrow curriculum ie no art/music/drama/IT/DT/RE etc. What happens to the non-academic children?
How do you increase classroom numbers in existing schools? If you reduce class sizes then you need to increase number of classes.

Sorry @soupyspoon I've quoted your wrong comment, the one where you stated education aims isn't the one I've quoted here!

Compromised by what? Why on earth are you talking about 'breezes' coming into your house and small windows?

I think it was to paddling but your opinion is always welcome 😀

This new idea on tax changes won’t affect her unless she moves

Sash windows are rarely fully airtight so they tend to be coldish and can sometimes have a bit of airflow round them. I like that.

I personally dont like new builds for a number of reasons but their small windows is one of them, our windows are big and I like that.

The changes that our house would have to make, if your suggestion was put in place, is that some of the structure might have to change, we cant for example increase our loft insulation without significantly changing the flooring and joists around, our utility and conservatory might have to change as its not likely to be insulated and eco enough I wouldnt hav thought.

And although it wouldnt change the appearence of the property, another option that is often discussed in terms of insulation is cavity wall insulation which I wouldnt put in.

Not sure why you have to sound so incredulous.

@Bluebellwood129 we can’t increase ours as we are listed

Of note increasing wall insulation often has adverse affects on ventilation. Buildings have to breathe and sealing old buildings prevents that.
Hence mould and decay

Agree soupy
We can’t seal and insulate all our housing stock it’s simply dangerous on some buildings

A simple solution for those that can't or won't make changes is to introduce a tax that reflects a lack of energy efficiency measures and which can be invested in green initiatives.

Like I said.
We’re not allowed to
Further more a tax like that would end up in court for those with housing stock where such measures would be detrimental to the building fabric

There’s only so far you can go with older housing stock before this becomes a reality.

You simply can’t tax people when they can’t do something by law or can’t because to do so makes their building unliveable

So are you claiming there are no measures whatsoever you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your property?

What green initiatives anyway?

The ones that are basically a nice little earner for governments rich friends and havent really done much for the country overall?

Green initiatives like building tons of houses without proper cycle routes or walking routes to and from them? Cutting public transport down? Cutting bin collections so theres shit and rubbish everywhere? Closing public toilets so people literally do shit in the street (live in a tourist area)

I could go on.

I have a listed property and I can’t even put in subtle double glazing

Green initiatives like offering incentives for people willing to make improvements to their homes to improve energy efficiency.

Why though my carbon footprint is way way lower than many others. I’m of the ‘put on a jumper’ school of central heating. I usually find other houses etc way too hot, went years and years without flying, owned 1 tiny car for essential trips blah blah. Just because my house has big opening windows what possible justification is there for charging me some kind of ‘tax”?

Green initiatives like offering incentives for people willing to make improvements to their homes to improve energy efficiency.

Like spray foam insulation that made properties unmortgageable, that sort of well thought out scheme?

Like air source heat pumps and solar panels that work well and save people thousands of pounds every year. That kind of well thought out scheme.

Yes have been exploring fields where I used to live recently and so much human shit and toilet roll in them it was sad.

Wont be a problem for much longer they are all being concreted over!

so sad

We can’t on the walls grade 2 star listed

Externally Wooden Frame Hall house lathe and plaster with hay for insulation

The roof is insulated as a cold roof. We are not allowed to make it a warm roof as we will affect the 14/15th century burning on the timbers

We are not allowed double glazing as we have original lead windows.

We can’t insulate the floors as we’d have to rip up the originals. We can’t lift the Tudor brick floors to give a flatter feel as the bricks are worn down where people have walked The conservation officer insists they are retained as is

We like many listed building owners have already had these conversations without Conservation officers and in order to retain the UKs historic buildings we are exempt.

Exterior cladding that burns down and people now cant move out of their flats.

Like air source heat pumps and solar panels that work well and save people thousands of pounds every year. That kind of well thought out scheme.

That's not well thought out at all though. We actually have a heat pump, and took advantage of the scheme, but it made sense for us as our home only had electric heating. Even with the grant, and doing the plumbing ourselves, it cost us an extra £5K.

Why would anyone with mains gas bother?

Exactly

Theres more to green initiatives than looking through a very narrow lens though isnt there? What you are suggesting is very indivdualistic. What I have suggested benefits the majority and makes life much more pleasant having an impact on our physical and mental health.

And your other post citing heat pumps, these are not the magic bullet that people make out, they cannot be easily or effectively retro fitted to a property, the whole heating system has to be changed. Not efficient, not desireable.

At £5K, the pump will have paid for itself within 3 years surely? Ours had a payback of 2.4 years.

Plus heat pumps don’t work with all properties, it wouldnt work with ours we’ve already looked into it

We did use Cameron’s excellent initiative for solar panels on our last house though.