The green life

John Vandi

Angela Carter Close, Lambeth

‘So far so good,’ is the laconic judgement of recent graduate John Vandi, 21, on his first year of life in an eco-home.

Mr Vandi, pictured, lives with five other family members in a six-bedroom property in Angela Carter Close in Brixton, south London, one of nine completed by Metropolitan Housing Partnership in March 2008 at a cost of £2.5 million. The houses were built to an Ecohomes ‘excellent’ rating, equivalent to level 4 of the code for sustainable homes.

Asked about his home’s green credentials, Mr Vandi points to the solar water heaters and rainwater buttes. But has living here made him any greener? ‘You conform to it - it becomes what you do,’ he says. I remark on the colourful flower bed beside the front door and he grins sheepishly.
‘I never used to garden,’ he smiles.

Across the close, Pat Merrin, 42, a mother of eight, says her new home is ‘10 times better’ than her last flat - but then any six-bedroom house would be a huge improvement on the two-bed council flat she lived in with her children for the previous two years. ‘That was hard,’ she says, but she has a big smile on her face when she talks about the move.

‘My life has definitely changed, because of the space,’ she says. But all that extra room has ramped up her living costs beyond what the house’s eco-features are capable of addressing. ‘The only problem with this place is the bills,’ she says. ‘I have to [be more environmentally friendly] - my electricity bill has been a lot more here.’

Amy Kerridge

Clay Fields, Suffolk

They should look incongruous, but somehow they blend in. In the middle of the Suffolk village of Elmswell stands a development of 26 stunning eco-homes, all low-slung pink exteriors, huge windows and wooden cladding.

The properties, which cost £2.9 million to build, belong to Orwell Housing Association. There are no wind-turbines or solar panels, instead these social-rented homes are built from sustainable materials and face south to maximise heat and light from the sun as it sets over the Suffolk landscape. They are separated by wide open spaces and grouped around communal gardens.

But 21-year-old Orwell tenant Amy Kerridge, pictured right, is underwhelmed. She has lived in the house for just over a year with her partner and two children after moving out of her father’s nearby cottage. How does it compare? She shrugs. ‘It gets too hot,’ she says. ‘Even with the skylight open.’ She describes it, appropriately enough, as a greenhouse.

There’s an upside, however.

‘I haven’t had to turn the heating on except for once in December,’ she says, although her minimal demand means she isn’t too happy to contribute to the communal wood pellet boiler running costs. A spokesperson for Orwell says tenants are charged 17p per day - or £62 a year - for the development’s running costs.

Her neighbour and fellow tenant Jack Whomes, a 23-year-old agricultural engineer, has been more affected by his new eco-home since he moved in with his partner and two children a year ago, as the pile of freshly dug onions outside his front door, grown in the communal vegetable patch, shows. ‘I had never gardened before in my life,’ he says proudly. ‘Now I grow everything: onions, carrots, parsnips, sprouts - you name it. No chemicals, nothing like that, which is good for the little ones.’

Inside his house, he says, you wouldn’t notice it was any different to a normal home - although he does agree with Ms Kerridge about the heat. But Mr Whomes believes that moving here has made him more environmentally conscious. ‘I’m not going to start tying myself to trees, but I do turn lights off - silly little things like that,’ he says. ‘In the flat we lived in before, everything was left on all the time.’

Erere Akpobaro

Boatemah Walk, Angell Town estate, Brixton

The arresting curve of Boatemah Walk, a terrace of 18 eco-friendly flats built for £2.7 million in 2006 by Lambeth Council as part of the regeneration of Brixton’s Angell Town estate, is just a short walk from Angela Carter Close.

The terrace, bordered by green space, bends inwardly around a verdant communal area. Charging around it are Zainab and Olamide Akpobaro, six and three years old. Their mother Erere, pictured above, lives in a property here part-time to care for her elderly mother and is happy to let them get on with it. ‘We have trees and space around,’ she says. ‘It’s more relaxing. You feel safe.’

She says living here, when not at the family home in nearby Norwood, has helped improve her family’s health. Both Ms Akpobaro’s mother and her son, Olamide, have suffered less from asthma since moving in. ‘Their breathing has got a lot better,’ she says. She puts it down to good airflow through the flat.

And moving to Boatemah Walk has saved the family money. ‘Electricity bills are lower, heating bills are lower,’ Ms Akpobaro says. Part of the development’s electricity is generated by huge solar panels that cover its roof, but that hasn’t encouraged profligacy - quite the opposite. ‘My mum does her washing during the day now, it’s more economical. Our behaviour has changed a little.’

She admits to taking out some of the energy saving light bulbs - ‘not bright enough’, she says, apologetically - but overall Ms Akpobaro describes a changed attitude since the move. ‘We’re happy to be doing our bit for the environment,’ she says.

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