Regular readers of KBZine will be aware that I'm not a big fan of the EU and all the uneccesary costs our membership foists upon us. Very occasionally though, it comes up with a gem and I believe that this week's adoption of the scheme to force EU governments to revamp old public buildings as part of the energy efficiency directive, may just be one of them.

The idea is that this forced refurbishment may in turn inspire private building owners to follow suit - as proven in the US in the 90s - which in the short term will create jobs and in the long term save energy and valuable resources such as water, whilst cutting costs (you can read more about it further down the page).

Clearly this is good news for the KBB industry in terms of new facilities required and the labour needed to instal them and if it works as it did in the US, the effects will be felt more widely.

My question is though, how - with their economies the way they are right now, are the 'member states' going to pay for it?

Well I for one can think of an easy way of Britain saving an estimated £10 billion a year...

Yours,

Jan Hobbs