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Keywords
Housing, Core workers, Prefabricated buildings, Energy
Abstract
This paper discusses the severe housing affordability problems of certain areas of the UK and the Government's "Key Worker" initiative designed to enable teachers, health workers and other essential workers to purchase housing in these areas. A case study of a proprietary pre-fabricated housing type, which may provide one solution to the provision of low cost housing, is presented. A detailed analysis of the energy requirements of the case study building and its assessment under the BRE's EcoHomes scheme is provided.
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Introduction
Escalating housing prices are resulting in an affordability gap between household incomes and the cost of housing. Problems are being encountered in recruiting and retaining key workers in situations where the social rented sector is unable to provide low cost housing or shared ownership. The situation is particularly acute in London and the South East. The response to these concerns has been the development of initiatives designed to house "key workers". On 23 March 2004, the Deputy Prime Minister announced the new key housing programme "Key Worker Living" with £690 million being allocated over the next two years to support key public service staff. This new initiative builds on the foundations of the Starter Home Initiative which ran for a three-year period, 2001-2004.
Providing affordable housing for key workers represents a new challenge for the house-building sector. According to the Housing Corporation, the government agency which funds affordable and social housing "traditional construction cannot build the number of houses necessary. Houses built largely off-site, with quality assured, have to be the answer" (Hetherington, 2002). The sector has been charged with developing innovative construction methods which meet modern expectations of quality and design and which include pre-assembly and off-site manufacturing. The energy efficiency of new housing is also an important principle enabling affordability and reducing the UK's CO2 emissions.
The Energy White Paper (DTI, 2003) is the first comprehensive forward looking statement of energy policy for over 20 years. It is thought that developed countries need to cut carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent by 2050....