Liverpool could be England's first true ecotown, EHA says

The Empty Homes Agency (EHA) has claimed that the city of Liverpool has the potential to be a true ecotown.

Liverpool has almost 15,000 empty homes and the agency stated that the greenest way of providing new homes is to renovate existing ones, rather than build ecotowns on new land.

David Ireland, chief executive of the EHA, said that cities like Liverpool "have huge potential for recycling their housing stock".

"I would far rather see resources channelled into regenerating homes there than building new towns in the countryside," he added.

In its New tricks with old bricks report - published earlier this year - the EHA claimed the CO2 produced from the construction of new homes was over four-and-a-half times more per square metre than that created by full-scale refurbishment of an existing property.

A recent study by Halifax Estate Agents found that house prices in Liverpool have risen by 76 per cent since it was awarded the 2008 European Capital of Culture.