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Extinction Rebellion

XR/Insulate Britain apparently. They all live next to Clarkson in their town houses in London. Probably Islington. Or that farm he runs. Probably in the home counties. All drinking soya lattes and cycling everywhere the cunts. Probably funded by Corbyn/Russia/insulation manufacturers anyway... :rolleyes:

I believe you'll find they're all jobless, feckless crusties too high on the marijuana cigarettes brought with our tax money to know what day it is, the dirty unwashed bastards.
 
I think another complexity arises with leasehold properties whenever they were built. When I lived in a leasehold flat, my downstairs neighbour and I asked for permission from the freehold company to get get cavity wall insulation done under a discounted council scheme and they refused to agree to it.

I can't remember the exact reasons they gave. It was something along the lines of:

1 - they were responsible for the fabric of the building,​
2 - only they could initiate and authorise the work - we couldn't authorise any work ourselves which affected the fabric of the building,​
3 - the lease only covered maintenance of the building and that cavity wall insulation was an upgrade,​
4 - although we were willing to pay for the CWI they wouldn't be able to recover any costs they incurred as a result of the CWI via the service charge as it would be outside the scope of the lease​
5 - even though the walls around mine and my neighbours flats only effectively enclosed our properties there were adjoining walls for the communal stairway and they were concerned about the impact of any "spillage" or insulation into the walls of the communal stairway​

You make a good point about leasehold. It could probably be lumped in with the problem of private renting as well. The people / company that own the building have no incentive to upgrade its thermal performance.

Some of the stuff your freeholder was saying makes a bit of sense, there sounds like the potential for a continuity of insulation problem and cold spots. Also its not like cavity fill hasn't caused some problems in some buildings. The whole thing though mainly reads like a list of excuses because its easier for them to say no because its no skin of their nose.

I bet if you were proposing to put some new expensive windows in (and pay for them) they would have quite happily said yes (in fact it was likely part of the lease agreement). How windows are not considered part of teh fabric of the building yet the inside of a cavity wall is beyond me.

The situation is pretty fucked and the chances of this getting resolved seems miles away.
 
You make a good point about leasehold. It could probably be lumped in with the problem of private renting as well. The people / company that own the building have no incentive to upgrade its thermal performance.

Some of the stuff your freeholder was saying makes a bit of sense, there sounds like the potential for a continuity of insulation problem and cold spots. Also its not like cavity fill hasn't caused some problems in some buildings. The whole thing though mainly reads like a list of excuses because its easier for them to say no because its no skin of their nose.

I bet if you were proposing to put some new expensive windows in (and pay for them) they would have quite happily said yes (in fact it was likely part of the lease agreement). How windows are not considered part of teh fabric of the building yet the inside of a cavity wall is beyond me.

The situation is pretty fucked and the chances of this getting resolved seems miles away.
I think, primarily, in my case, it was the freehold company being constrained by the terms of the leases. The leases defined who was responsible for what and how any expenses could be recovered. The lease was very specific about "keeping the building in good repair". The legal interpretation appears to be that "good repair" cannot include any element of improvement. Later legislation to protect tenants and lessees has resulted in an inability to improve many leasehold properties as the costs cannot be legally recovered from the lessees. As a result the quality of the buildings are "set in stone" in the period they were built. They cannot legally be improved.

I think there has been legislation which has been enabled which effectively over-rides some aspects of the leases. I seem to remember when I lived there that we had to have safety improvements done which would not have actually been possible under the terms of the lease.

One thing I should clarify is that, like many leasehold flats, we each owned a share in the management company and the freehold company. Many residents wanted to improve things but we were hampered by legislation which barred us from doing it in order to protect the residents who didn't want to or couldn't afford to pay for improvements.

When we approached the freehold company for permission to install cavity wall insulation our directors took professional advice and it was this advice which resulted in the freehold company having to refuse me permission.

The only way I can see to improve the situation for leasehold properties is for legislation to be put in place which would treat energy-efficiency measures as repairs rather than improvements. In addition to this there would have to be grants available to the less well-off leaseholders to pay for the proportion of the service charges relating to energy-efficiency measures. To be honest, I can't see this happening!

As an aside, you mentioned private renters. In the set up I mentioned above - freehold company and management company owned by the lessees collectively, any BTL landlords who owned one of the flats would not be able to improve their properties, even if they wanted to, for the same legal restrictions.
 
Yeah, leasehold rules are a problem. There are lots of problems. Was having this discussion with someone earlier who kept finding reasons why it was impossible to retrofit various types of housing - but the fact that there are some really intractable problems doesn't mean there aren't a lot of houses in this country more than suitable for retrofitting with improved insulation and heat pumps, with already existing technology and within current rules. Lets get on with what's possible and work out the difficult issues as the project commences. There isn't time to wait to get everything ironed out.

This discussion makes me think of a piece of academic work on the nine different discourses of climate delay, best read in cartoon form: (elements of 4/8/9 and 12 when it comes to retrofit)

dq1zccily2f61.jpg
 
i went along to a local 'big green week' meeting yesterday eve and there was a woman there who is very involved in extinction rebellion, she's in her 70s and tiny and keeps glueing herself to stuff and getting arrested. I was really impressed and moved by some of the things she said.

She told me about what it felt like to do a solitary protest recently just her self alone sat in the road stopping traffic, waiting for the police to come, ordinary people just trying to get somewhere shouting at her what the hell do you think you'll achieve etc, and how the thought process was that she went through to decide that this was an action she felt was worth doing. Changed my mind about a few things, which is always a good feeling.
 
i went along to a local 'big green week' meeting yesterday eve and there was a woman there who is very involved in extinction rebellion, she's in her 70s and tiny and keeps glueing herself to stuff and getting arrested. I was really impressed and moved by some of the things she said.

She told me about what it felt like to do a solitary protest recently just her self alone sat in the road stopping traffic, waiting for the police to come, ordinary people just trying to get somewhere shouting at her what the hell do you think you'll achieve etc, and how the thought process was that she went through to decide that this was an action she felt was worth doing. Changed my mind about a few things, which is always a good feeling.

Yeah, for all the bleating on about young people etc etc. a significant percentage of people doing stuff as XR are people in their 60s and 70s.
 
There are a lot of retirees in XR because they have the time and aren't worried about the impact of an arrest on their careers or ability to look after the kids. Kids and work is my excuse for not being out there. Maybe in fifteen years.
 
Yeah, for all the bleating on about young people etc etc. a significant percentage of people doing stuff as XR are people in their 60s and 70s.
You'd have thought that xr would give a shit about pensioners nicked, prosecuted and convicted for actions on xr demonstrations. But I've seen no evidence they do and quite a bit to the contrary: of the pensioners I know who've been prosecuted for xr stuff not one of them was supported by that organisation, legally financially or morally
 
Yeah, for all the bleating on about young people etc etc. a significant percentage of people doing stuff as XR are people in their 60s and 70s.
yep its one of the things i noticed from the photos, lots of older people. This one yesterday was very what have i got to lose, my kids are too old to even be embarrassed of me anymore.

Also, 'why are they all so white and middle class', someone there last night was saying that as a black person he's really not that keen on getting arrested, its not the same as doing it when you're a nice little old white lady, and that makes total sense to me.
 
If only it was just about visual appearance, then it would be easy as a mindset shift. There is some serious barriers to retrofitting insulation onto existing buildings.

Still, sounds like my job will be busy and I'm in the right industry.

There's always something you can do though, even providing draft excluders and filling cracks can make a difference. Landlords already have to provide an Energy Performance Certificate for new tenancies, it wouldn't be that difficult to set up an independent body that assessed private rented properties and required landlords to do what was reasonably practicable to improve insulation. It's horrible living somewhere you can never get warm, and even worse if you're skint and can't afford huge bills - little things can make a big difference, even that shrink wrap plastic you can put over windows in the winter can make places a lot warmer, and it costs about £30 a year, but it's a tricky job to do if someone's older or disabled.

In fact it occurs to me this is something mutual aid groups could be doing now, helping people make improvements to their homes, putting pressure on social and private landlords, even helping people sort their gardens out or applying for allotments.. There's a not entirely unfair perception of environmentalists being judgemental middle class do-gooders who make you late for work and snear at you because you shop at Iceland, and a bit of grass roots work showing that green principles are actually something that can improve our lives not diminish them might help change the conversation and bring otherwise alientated people on board,
 
You'd have thought that xr would give a shit about pensioners nicked, prosecuted and convicted for actions on xr demonstrations. But I've seen no evidence they do and quite a bit to the contrary: of the pensioners I know who've been prosecuted for xr stuff not one of them was supported by that organisation, legally financially or morally

Why is the fact they're pensioners relevant? If XR's support is lacking it's irrelevant who for surely?
 
I believe you'll find they're all jobless, feckless crusties too high on the marijuana cigarettes brought with our tax money to know what day it is, the dirty unwashed bastards.
They live in tents so what the fuck are they on about. The only insulation they know’s in their sleeping bags; silly bl**dy cunts 🤫
 
i went along to a local 'big green week' meeting yesterday eve and there was a woman there who is very involved in extinction rebellion, she's in her 70s and tiny and keeps glueing herself to stuff and getting arrested. I was really impressed and moved by some of the things she said.
Was she the inspiration for you super glueing your fingers together the other day?
 
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