Demolition of housing estates should be discouraged

Sakina Sheikh, chair of a London Assembly committee, has said that the demolition of housing estates should be discouraged and builders should be incentivised to retrofit as part of measures to cut carbon emissions. In a new report, she said: "A trend towards discouraging demolition could positively impact how we manage the quality of our historic housing estates going forward. This, in turn, could positively impact the capacity for communities to remain in their homes and to protect beloved historic community buildings, if they choose to." Ms Sheikh said the government can also make retrofitting more “financially viable” by listening to industry calls to cut the VAT builders have to pay to retrofit properties. Her committee’s report also recommended that the government make it mandatory for all buildings to have a whole-life carbon (WLC) assessment to tackle the issue of embodied carbon. 

Inside Housing (09/02/2024)