GBRC

Well, things looked promising as sat down for our movie shortlisting session.

Here is the another water blog by Rose Timlett, WWF's policy officer on water.

Late last month, we enjoyed our first barbeque of the year on the unfortunately-yellowing Common outside our flat. This may seem late as we've already enjoyed some glorious weather. March was unusually warm, there were few April showers, and by May, gardens were in full bloom, tricked by the sunshine to show their wares early. The Met Office has confirmed that in the south and east of England, this has been the driest spring in 100 years.

The Budget is now settled, and the Chancellor is polishing the statement he will give to the Commons today (23 March) at 12.30pm. It's been touted as a Budget for growth. Will it be a Budget for green growth?

Saving water in the home has huge potential to help reduce CO2 emissions and energy bills; and it also helps restore and protect hundreds of rivers across the UK.

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.

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).

Last week was a busy week for the Grand Designs Great British Refurb campaign, and a really important week for UK homes’ energy efficiency. With your fantastic support we handed in our petition to No. 10 with over 8,000 signatures, sending a clear message that we all want the government to do more to help us reduce the impact of our homes on the environment.

Also last week the government published its Low Carbon Transition Plan, setting out plans for how it will meet the ambitious targets set in the 2008 Climate Change Act – a 34% cut in emissions by 2020 leading to an 80% cut by 2050.