notes

In my post Care for the Ageing (11 October 2021) I wrote in broad terms about the importance, in tackling the climate crisis, of making our existing - and ageing - housing stock more energy efficient. Here I will get much more specific and discuss the practicalities and nitty-gritty. I spent my childhoood in a neighbourhood on the south side of Sheffield. We had a primary school, a park, shops, a public library, two cinemas, the family doctor, several churches and chapels, a chippy and a couple of pubs all within walking distance. Our housing estate comprised several streets of identical semi-detached houses, most built of ugly faux-stone concrete blocks, with a few of red brick, with bay windows on one or both floors. Built, I think, just after World War II they were a first step into home ownership and lower-middle-class status for working-class families like mine. These quiet streets where kids could play safely, with everything people need nearby, off-street parking and a ...