How will elderly pay for heating upgrades?

THE Government want all housing stock to be carbon neutral in the near future, i.e. heat pumps instead of boilers, underfloor heating and cavity wall insulation to name a few expensive items.

A few concerns, one being how will elderly people be able to do all this in order to sell their houses to pay for their social care? Some are on a small pension. Some will be stuck in their homes unable to leave. Will the government then pay all of the care bills?

If houses belonging to poorer families or elderly people needing to downsize cannot be sold, that would stagnate the housing market. When people die, how will executors sell the house? There may not be enough in the estate to do the changes.

There will be a lot of empty houses left standing. Which is a bit silly, as homeless people need homes, as well as the target of so many houses needing to be built to keep up with demand.

Solid walls cannot be cavity wall insulated. If you put cladding on the outside, the damp could get behind it. I agree some changes (like loft insulation) is good, but each house should be individually assessed. As usual, the ‘one size fits all’ idea has been used without much thought.

Also, where will home owners stay while all this work is being done, or the disabled?

It is hard enough to get on the housing ladder as it is. Making houses unmortgageable until the work is done, will make it nearly impossible. I have been there and it takes a bit of financial juggling.

We already have housing stock that is worthless due to cladding. Why have rules to make life even more difficult?

It is OK to set targets but they must be realistic.

Mrs T Newman

Gloucester