The old phrase timing is everything couldn’t have rung more true for us at Keepmoat a couple of weeks ago.

For the past two years, we have been quietly getting on with developing our eco-refurbishment product. Working with our partners to test new sustainable methods while trusting old ones, has, we believe, helped us to pioneer what will become an industry growth area in the next couple of years.

It’s been a busy few days for the Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign.  We’ve been rushed off our feet.  First, there was the Manchester House refurbishment followed by Kevin McCloud appearing at the Tory Conference to tell them how important a programme of eco-refurbishment is for the UK’s existing house stock.  This was accompanied by the Great British Refurb Campaign’s very own Simon McWhirter appearing on the big screen as part of the Manchester House video

Then it was down to Birmingham and Grand Designs Live. On Friday afternoon Kevin appeared on stage with Colin Butfield from WWF and Marian Spain from the Energy Saving Trust as part of the Big Debate.  Both they and the audience were able to quiz Greg Clark MP, Conservative spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change (we quizzed Ed Miliband in London earlier this year). It was a lively debate with huge interest from the audience. A well informed bunch who were not going to let Greg Clark off the hook easily as they questioned him on exactly what the Tory policy was and where, in their opinion, its weaknesses lie.

Sometimes campaigning gets a bit tedious. You can spend loads of time talking amongst yourselves - like minded greenies going round in virtuous circles agreeing with each other, but not making any real impression on those whose minds you've really got to change.

Well the campaign has kicked off a bit of controversy this week - which makes a refreshing change if you ask me. What's the fuss about? Kevin McCloud's appearance at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, that's what.

Frankly, you can only muster so much interest in something that has not yet happened. NGOs and campaigners like us are forever banging on about the world we want to see in the future. Big promises - carbon cuts, energy bill cuts, job creation - are at the hypothetical stage.

That's why it's so important to see green refurb actually carried out. In reality! To a real house! A real householder! You get the idea. Knauf Insulation have been leading this week's Manchester refurbishment project, which Simon McWhirter blogged about last week.

So what were the questions that they had to to answer? Do you want a house that is more comfortable, which has lower running costs and is kinder to the planet? And by the way, do you want this to be something which everyone across the country could have without having to put their hand in their pocket for cash? A pleasant proposition and one which WWF supporter Rebecca Williams was happy to say yes to in agreeing to let the Great British Refurb campaign team do an energy makeover on her house.

While progress is being made across the country in topping up loft insulation and filling cavity walls, her Victorian mid-terrace in inner city Manchester is typical of one of the 8 million UK homes that simply have no cavities to fill. And it's one of the 9 million with a suspended wooden floor lacking insulation. Without getting too techy, this makes them a little bit trickier to deal with, and on occasion a lot more expensive to fix (as explained in the solid wall insulation blog).

It’s not long until the crunch climate talks in Copenhagen.  And with this week’s gathering at the UN, followed by the G20 meeting in Pitsburg, climate change dominates both the media and political agenda; for the time being at least.  Unfortunately a lot of this still focuses on talking and what is being offered up is often too vague and lacking in targets for us to make any meaningful assessment as to whether it will really be enough.

Many of the commentators and politicians talk about this being a make or break time.  Whether they back up their rhetoric with action is a mute point.  But with 27 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions coming from our homes we, as homeowners, are in an ideal position to show them the way.  That is why the Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign has redesigned and relaunched our website.

We know we need to do something radical to reduce the contribution of our nation’s homes to the UK’s overall carbon emissions: 27% of UK emissions come from the homes that have already been built.  But what practical steps can be taken to reduce emissions? And how can we make this simple so that every home in the UK is at least properly insulated?

Last week the team here at the UK Green Building Council published a new report about the so-called ‘Pay As You Save’ scheme: a financial mechanism to encourage homeowners to refurbish their homes with low carbon measures.   Essentially the idea is that the cost of installing low carbon refurbishment measures in a home is spread out over a long period of time so that savings on a homeowner’s energy bills cover the costs of the work the done – and should leave the householder better off from day one.