Everyone is looking forward to a post lockdown world and the first signs of spring have arrived, accompanied by some nicer weather. The children are back at school, family and friends meeting up in the garden now seems the perfect time to build for the future, for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.

This future should be an opportunity to sort some fundamental problems in our town and in the wider area. The big issue still remains and that's housing, the affordable housing problem continues to be something that we struggle to address.

However the challenge is much bigger than the need for 'affordable' or social housing, although that's a very important issue in itself. We also need to focus on the future of our environment, our planet. In many ways, nature has held our hand over this past year. Many of us have formed a new relationship with open spaces, gardens, the natural world that surrounds us and now more than ever we need to embrace and protect what we may have taken for granted in the past.  

It is therefore extremely disappointing to see how developers are doing the absolute bare minimum when it comes to new housing developments in Frome. To give it some context, all tiers of government have declared a climate emergency; car manufacturers are phasing out fossil fuels; gas boilers will no longer be installed in new homes from 2025 and various bodies have set targets to be carbon neutral from 2030 onwards.

Yet housing developers seem oblivious. In one development in Frome their attitude is that if the house is insulated, their job is done. They plan to continue using gas boilers, do not provide charging points for electric vehicles nor PV panels. Essentially their 'standards' are in line with 2013 levels, which is just not good enough by any measure. 

The UK government will update building standards fully in 2025, and in the meantime are proposing interim measures which will come into effect later this year. The efficiency of the proposed houses miss these targets significantly, meaning that they will be obsolete even before the first brick is laid, forcing future homeowners to cover the considerable costs of retro-fitting the necessary improvements. Furthermore, they will continue to produce carbon for their lifespan, probably at a cost to the local councils who will have to offset this elsewhere. In addition, while walking and cycling has become exponentially more popular over the last year this developer has failed to provide adequate walking and cycling routes to the town centre, missing an opportunity to encourage people to reduce their reliance on cars.

In summary, at a time when everyone else is looking forward, it is sad to see that these companies, who make hundreds of millions in profits every year, are unwilling to do so. At Fair Housing for Frome we say to developers, please start building for the future now. We're just a few years away from a time when:

- electric vehicles will be the norm

- electricity generation will no longer be reliant on fossil fuels

- people who want to walk and cycle to town centres and transport hubs will have that option. 

Fair Housing for Frome is simply saying - Let's build back better and for the future. Let's build more social housing and make housing more affordable in this town.

Taken from an article by Steve Tanner, Steve is a Development Worker for Fair Housing for Frome, for more information go to

https://fairhousingforfrome.org.uk