"Building new homes to tough, rigourously enforced standards, would significantly cut fuel bills and effectively pay for itself, making homes more affordable for first time buyers."

What? How?

If the energy efficiency improvements 'pay for themselves' the overall financial cost of buying the house is the same as if they hadn't bothered with the energy saving measures in the first place, especially if you intend to move-on before they have payed for themselves.

How does that make the house 'more affordable' for first time buyers?

In any case; given how hard it is to get on the property ladder these days you may as well say that putting springs in sports shoes makes the moon more reachable for high-jumpers.

Shame I couldn't take advantage of it.

When I moved in to my house I had a survey done to see if there was a cavity wall and if it had been filled. There was and it hadn't.

Or rather it hadn't been filled with foam. Instead, it had been crammed with builder's rubble and junk left over from the construction when the house went up in the 1970s.

So if anyone knows the insulation value of loose brick, bags of set concrete and polythene wrap, please do tell.

I wonder how long it will be before the Tories jump in and say "oh, yes, we're planning the same sort of thing too..." given the way they seem to be trying to "reposition" themselves on the political landscape, mostly by lifting Lib Dem ideas!

"Since the majority of the houses that we live in already exist"

I personally don't know anyone that lives in a house that doesn't exist, then again maybe this is a solution to the property price boom? Also, surely a house that doesn't exist will have zero carbon emissions?

They've fixed the text now