THE Extinction Rebellion protests in London highlight the urgent need to take action to deal with global warming and climate change, yet relatively easy decisions are not being taken by individuals, companies and local councils.

Take housing, for example. A walk around the new estate going up at Mount Oswald in Durham City reveals 100-plus new houses, none of which have solar panels on their roofs as far as one can tell, even though the marginal cost of installing them at the time of building is relatively very small.

I see (Echo, Apr 22) that over 150 houses on the Sherburn Road Estate have just been given new roofs by the Bernicia Housing Association, which is great news for the householders, but there is no mention of solar panels which could have been incorporated at the same time, again at much smaller cost than any individual installations.

In both cases there would indeed have been increased cost, but the long-term gains are clear. Not only does the householder benefit from much reduced fuel costs, the property increases in value, and, most of all, society in general gains from the associated reduction in fossil fuel use for power generation.

I suspect that almost all new housing developments across County Durham will show the same lack of vision when it comes to this issue, just as does the county council in its new draft County Plan. This does make one mention of solar photovoltaic panels for housing, but it is very much worded as being one of a list of possibilities for improving energy efficiency on housing instead of being a requirement.

It is time to stop being mealy-mouthed about this.

Quite simply, every new house should be required to have solar PV panels built on the roof and if this hits the obscene corporate profits of the likes of Persimmon, so be it.

And, yes, I do have solar PV on my own roof, and have had for the past nine years.

Nigel Martin, Pity Me