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‘Check your rent is not too high’: Mixed reaction to new Paris poster
The campaign contributes to the ‘clichéd, outdated caricature of the chubby, arrogant landlord’, one property specialist says
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Where are the 3,000 local bridges reported to have structural faults in France?
Too much road traffic, climate change, a lack of maintenance and repair are all factors
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How France's high-rise housing solution to post-war boom became an urban nightmare
The grands ensembles, high-rise public housing units, were meant to provide desperately needed accommodation in big cities in the 1950s but the plan was abandoned only two decades later
New-builds in France from mid-2021 must not have gas heating
New regulations will ban the use of gas to heat most new houses in France from this summer
Planning permission will usually only be given for houses using biomass, heat pumps or solar heating. Some electric radiators will be allowed but the government is trying to discourage their use.
Because of delays in French businesses producing alternative heating systems, an escape clause has been put into the new rules, called RE2020, allowing well-insulated new houses to still use gas.
In 2020, 21% of new houses and 75% of new blocks of flats had gas as their main heating source. The rules apply to new offices and schools, but for new flats they will come into force in 2024.
Another part of RE2020 imposes insulation standards for heatwaves. New homes must have sufficient insulation to ensure inside temperatures do not rise over 30C during the day or 28C at night for more than 25 days in the year.
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