Building regulations must be aimed at moving towards zero carbon homes

In answer to your headline, ‘Is the government doing enough to incentivise households to go green?’ (Climate, 19 March), the answer is: no, the government is doing nowhere near enough. Let’s have some bold action which will bring about meaningful change.

Actual regulations are required before the building industry will do their bit, which means building regulations really have to be aimed at moving towards zero-carbon homes as quickly as possible. Build them from now on and the need for expensive rectifications can be reduced.

I was surprised that we were able to move into a brand new apartment a year ago which has towel radiators with no thermostatic controls, for example. Why? All lights in common parts should only come on when someone is near. Room heating should have individual time controls. There should be a move towards sustainable heating to replace gas. Multiply these omissions by however many thousands and it all adds up – in the wrong direction.

The government should be leading on measures to combat climate change instead of withdrawing schemes and limiting the few incentives that were in place. They are letting us down.

Think big, please, and make a real difference.

Helen Watson

Address supplied

Clive Rix calls for a debate based on “logic and facts” (Letters, 19 March) concerning the proposed Cumbria coal mine.

Given that, apparently, the industry is only a few years away from finding an alternative to coking coal in steel production, where is the “logic” in opening a new mine which will be operational until 2049? And most of the coal would be exported anyway.

Martin Heaton

Cheshire

On Tuesday – the anniversary of Covid-19 lockdown – we will all stop for a moment to reflect on those we have lost to this dreadful pandemic.

Personally, I think of the near 32,000 people who have died in care settings across England and Wales. Every death is a tragedy – a father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, aunt, uncle or friend.

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Tuesday is also a time to think of and thank all those carers, NHS and other key workers who put their own lives at risk to care for others. To acknowledge that work, it would be nice if the government could give all carers in England a bonus, like the £500 the administrations have given to carers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Mike Padgham

Managing director, Saint Cecilia’s Care Group

The government is keen to relocate departments and asylum seekers out of London. Can I suggest that Priti Patel is relocated to Ascension Island?

Tim Sidaway

Hertfordshire

The government says it’s backing the NHS with the promise of a further £6.6 billion of funding (‘NHS to be given extra £6.6 billion to cover cost of Covid, Matt Hancock announces’, 18 March), but will any of this reach our community pharmacies – a vital component of the health service frontline?

Hard working pharmacy teams seem to have been forgotten by the NHS and government. The chancellor must work with the NHS to honour his promise of March 2020 and give this critical network what it needs to prevent it from being damaged irreversibly. Already reeling from cutbacks and funding freezes, to date pharmacies have spent an additional £400m to stay open and deliver NHS care in a Covid-safe way.

The prime minister himself has said that he doesn’t want any pharmacies to close as a result of underfunding. Yet, as it stands, we will see more closures and reductions in pharmacy services, at a time when primary care is already greatly overstretched.

Malcolm Harrison, chief executive, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA)

Mark Lyonette, chief executive, National Pharmacy Association (NPA)

Simon Dukes, chief executive, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiation Committee (PSNC)