"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 7 Jun 2004 10:09:27 +0100, "IMM" wrote:



Most people have no impressions these homes are out of their experience.
If
Wimpey stared to build al their homes as eco and they looked much like
all
others, then the non-existent perceptions will disappear.

Possibly, but Wimpey are a commercial
company with shareholders and
would perceive this as a risk that they
may not wish to take.

I really couldn't a hoot about a developer and its shareholders. If they
will not deliver the goods then the government has to force them into the
20th century. Getting them into the 21st century is asking too much.

The car is ubiquitous, how many people
have actually seen an eco house?

Not very many probably, which is why I made
the point that education
is a factor in this as well.

Energy Park in Milton Keyens has people touring it in their cars to see
the
wonderful homes, which counters your pie in the sky claims.

The very notion of Milton Keynes and all that goes with it is a big
turn off to a lot of people.

You said it. "ignorance".

If you want to know why Wimpey is not
building eco's by the 100s of thousands
then go and ask the these people why
they are not? There is no reason whatsoever
why they should not be building eco homes.

Yes there is. They perceive that people don't
want them,

What balls! They don't want change. They are frightened of change.

The same for the car makers. Why do
they persist in using outdated polluting
technology when proven alternatives are around.

Same point exactly. Electric cars. manufacturers like GM and Toyota
launched them in the U.S. and made them available on lease, then had
second thoughts and terminated the leases.

Hybrids sell well in the USA. Yet hybrids are not state-of-the-art of what
can be done.

The only way to charge these large
money making dinosaurs is to legislate.

In the short term possibly.

It has to be to get them to deliver. they virtually have monopolies
governments should control them when they fail to deliver.

This is clearly not without political
risk or successive governments would have legislated zero
energy homes for all new builds.

It is going that way. The new insulation regs are a major hype. the
Canadian government is operating their R-2000 over here too, as well as many
other countries too.

John Prescott has warned them to catch up or he will
make them do it.

By sticking one on the chairman of Wimpey?

I hope so.

They never even looked into other
more cost effective ways, just going
along doing the same old expensive inefficient thing.

Because it is what they perceive that
the public wants, and what they
know how to do.

What tripe. They build to what they "think" they make the most money on.
They are doing very well so why should they change. That is theri mentality.

It still comes back to the same three things though - education,
economics legislation. At present, the government is clearly
focussed on the third of these.

It has to be as certain industries are still in the 1930s. No government
wants to legislate unnecessarily.

The present one does it all the time.

Because it has to keep the country keeping up. I widh they woudl
de-legislate on land though.

If the private sector was delivering they
could just sit back. Unfortunately the
government has to intervene.