01 April 2008

News Round-Up -- 1st April 2008

- No stories about the royal family, then two come along at once ... The expansion of Heathrow might affect a certain someone who lives in Windsor Castle.

- George Monbiot criticises how job creation is being used to justify chain store expansion, nuclear power, and military contracts.

- A new study shows an alarming rise in suicides and self-harm amongst women prisoners -- 9 out of 10 women prisoners are in prison for non-violent offences.

- The government is finally changing its Low Carbon Buildings Programme, but no extra money is being put into the scheme. It has only been allocated £80 million over 3 years.

Friends of the Earth's low carbon homes campaigner, Ed Matthew, said: "The government's response continues to be woeful. The LCBP should be 10 times bigger, with funds of £1bn, providing at least 50% grants for renewable technologies for every household." Andrew Cooper of the Renewable Energy Association said he was "shocked". "Making a failing programme fail over a longer period is not a solution. It is no longer the Low Carbon Buildings Programme -- it is the Slow Carbon Buildings Programme."

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