Environmental cost of demolition "enormous"

The Empty Homes Agency has been speaking about the environmental damage that is done by demolishing unused properties.

Henry Oliver, policy advisor at the campaigning charity, described the cost to the environment of knocking a down a building as "depressing".

"If you demolish it, even if you re-use the materials, you've got to build a new one and that is something like four and a half times as much in the way of CO2 emissions per square metre as refurbishment," he explained.

Mr Oliver's comments follow a survey by the Halifax which revealed that 288,763 private homes in England in April 2006 had been empty for six months or more.

The Empty Homes Agency published a similar report that showed there were 672,294 empty homes in England last year - a figure which represents 3.02 per cent of all homes in the country.