People in glass houses...
Green activist goes on TV to back ‘ban’ on new conservatories – from inside her conservatory!
IT was perhaps not the best choice of setting from which to call for curbs on conservatories in new homes.
Green campaigner Angela Terry was accused of hypocrisy yesterday when she appeared on breakfast television lecturing viewers on the damage caused to the environment by the ‘glass houses’ – sat in her own conservatory at home.
Discussing incoming building laws on the structures, the environmental scientist said they ‘act like a furnace for the rest of your house’.
She added that the new rules were about ‘future proofing’ homes for when our summers are predicted to get hotter due to climate change – and having a ‘no-regret policy’ on protecting the planet.
But her message was somewhat undermined when GMB presenter Susanna Reid asked: ‘Hang on, you’re saying you’re alright in your conservatory?
‘Your conservatory is still going to stand but nobody else is allowed to have one from now on, is that your point?’
The activist suggested that because her house in Wells, Somerset, already came with a conservatory, she was excluded from the rules.
The 47-year-old, whose company One Home works with the media on climate issues, told GMB: ‘It’s all about how the world is warming.
‘Our planet is getting hotter and hotter and hotter as global warming takes hold. If a developer is building a house today and putting a conservatory up, you’ll assume that house will be around in 30 years. So it’s about having a no-regret policy.
‘So once they’re up we know people don’t want to take them down, which is fine... obviously I’m in my conservatory here.
‘When we bought the house it was here, so we’re trying to keep people safe ultimately.’
Regulations coming into force in June will make conservatories far rarer in newbuild homes. They will limit window sizes according to which direction they face.
They are part of a raft of measures to make sure homes are fit for when summer temperatures are forecast to regularly reach 40C (104f).