Sustainability should be integral to the design of public sector developments. But that doesn’t mean adding green technology for the sake of it
The issue of sustainability tends to be high up the list of priorities when commencing a new development – even more so if a public sector client is involved.
REACH is a Sheffield based social enterprise training apprentices to use reclaimed and recycled materials to build affordable eco homes from shipping containers. Launched by ex-police inspector Jon Johnson (pictured below, right), who already runs recycling based social enterprise Strip the Willow, REACH recently got through to the semi-final of the national Virgin Media Business VOOM 2016 pitch competition. Jamie Veitch visited Jon to learn more about his plans for affordable eco homes.
Why is there a need for REACH?
Everybody knows there’s a crisis with housing supply in the country at the moment. There are virtually no affordable houses being built. The government are not helping. Land supply and land prices mean developers are not interested in doing that kind of thing and nobody’s making them do it. In the meantime, average wages are falling, house prices are rising, Right to Buy is taking supply out of the market, housing associations are up against it. People are in desperate straights. They are looking to a future where they are not going to be able to afford their own place to live and that’s whole generations in the future. Every policy at the moment is pushing people to having to rely on a rental sector that’s not reliable, where 35% of properties don’t meet the habitable homes standard, and at the moment there’s just no viable alternative, nobody seems to be looking at a commercial-scale solution – and we’ve got one.
