www.regenwales.orgSustainable Communities: the

importance of housing. Care and Repair Cymru

Conference 2012: Copthorne Hotel

19th and 20th September

Futorology?• Crew ‘deep place’ study

• Comprehensive analysis

• Multi- factoral

• Integrated solutions

• Tredegar and Llandovery

Five sustainability issues• Climate change• Fuel poverty• Food security• Economic prosperity (growth or low growth?)• Equity

Housing is central to all five

Climate change• Housing contributes to greenhouse gases (60 % of

the 40% buildings contribute)• Mainly fossil fuel based energy and embedded

construction energy.• Solution =

• Renewables

• Retrofit measures (insulation, Solar, PVs, CHP)

• Behaviour change (manage technology, avoid rebound)

Fuel poverty• Closely related impact on consumer• Fuel costs rising proportion of income• Self-disconnection• Risks for young and older persons

Solution =• Same as for climate change

• Targeted tariffs

• Specific benefits

Food security• Precarious food supply• Rising food costs• International competition for staples• Climate change contribution of food transport

Solution=• Local food production (industrial scale)

• Home production

• Seasonal diets

Economic prosperity• The growth paradigm• GDP measures wealth• Measures of well-being• Globalisation

Solution =• No or low growth economy (consolidation)

• Local economic development

• Labour not work

Equity• The few consume – the many can’t• Cost-based rationing • Diverging life quality• Vulnerability of older persons

Solution =• Carbon quotas

• Collective provision through co-operation

But are we all in it together?

So what does it look like?• New patterns of housing

• Housing + work = home

• Collective transport

• Collective heat and energy

• Multi-generational households

• Communal living