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Climate change has highlighted the importance of thermal comfort and its health-related outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society living in social housing. Due to their vulnerable living conditions, low-income people are more exposed to negative outcomes of overheating and cold indoor temperatures in buildings. Previous studies suggest that there is a significant risk of overheating in retrofitted buildings both for the current and future weather scenarios. The UK government has introduced new building regulations to assess and limit the risk of overheating in new buildings; however, there is still a need to assess and improve conditions for existing and retrofitted properties. This study aims to evaluate the effect of retrofit strategies on thermal comfort and the risk of overheating in social housing under current and future climatic conditions. A typical case study building was simulated in DesignBuilder to assess thermal comfort conditions for upgraded building fabric to Part L of the UK building regulations and Passive House standards. The summer results were analyzed according to CIBSE TM59 while the Predicted Mean Vote index (PMV) was used for winter analysis. Findings revealed that the south-facing bedrooms are most exposed to overheating. Risk of overheating significantly increased for the future weather scenarios by up to 10 times while winter thermal comfort improved for the retrofitted scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving household energy efficiency is regarded as key to significantly curtailing domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Various policy instruments have been introduced to retrofit the existing domestic building stock in the UK; however, many fail to acknowledge the significant role that occupants’ lifestyle play in energy use. The research discusses the results of a survey questionnaire administered to the residents of one of the pilot CESP schemes in Aspley, Nottingham. Factors affecting domestic energy consumption are explored, some of which relate to the building design, while others are under the direct control of the occupants. Significant findings related to home performance, home energy use, and tenants’ lifestyle are investigated in the first phase of the research. The total number of responses to the survey represents 10% of around 900 properties eligible for the CESP scheme that have not been approached for the scheme uptake. It is evident from the survey results that the majority of the sample is aware of the basic energy-saving actions in everyday life but are not likely to take up the more difficult actions. In summary, retrofit programmes will reduce carbon emissions to some degree, whereas the bigger challenge is addressing habitual household energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a study which was conducted to investigate whether there is any investor sophistication effect in the market in Great Britain. The two decades following the development of the capital asset pricing model saw a veritable explosion in work investigating both asset pricing models and market efficiency. A sophistication effect is identified for negative unexpected earnings companies, but only for those with high levels of sophisticated owners. The results of including both size and sophistication variables in the price-earnings response function as well as their instability across the sign of unexpected earnings both indicate clear departures from expectations under the unconditional market efficiency model. Debt equity swaps provide a clean mechanism for differentiating between old and new information. In the swap gain situation, however, there are two possible effects at work--the misinterpretation of information by unsophisticated investors and the availability of a superior information set to sophisticated investors. With regard to reporting regulation, the distinction between these two phenomena is critical.

Recently, retrofit of tower blocks has gained momentum particularly in the UK social housing sector due to the increasing rate of fuel poverty coupled with deteriorating indoor living conditions. However, the process of making improvements to the thermal performance of building envelopes can significantly impact on occupants' thermal comfort, increasing overheating risks with the changing climate and associated heat waves. The first phase of the study evaluated the building energy performance of a 1960s social housing tower block prototype in London, pre-retrofit, where the building simulation model was created and calibrated with monitored indoor data and occupants' interviews. The second research phase, the subject of this paper, uses the model to further investigate the impact of improved thermal insulation of the building envelope, based on U-values prescribed by the UK Building Regulations (Part L1B), on the potential risk of overheating. The study investigates the impact of retrofitting on occupants' thermal comfort and building energy performance in the current and future climate scenarios (2030, 2050 and 2080). Results confirm that improving the U-value of external walls will significantly reduce the heating energy use by 70% under future climate scenarios while the T o increases by 15–17% with U-value of 0.5 W/m2K and 0.3 W/m2K in comparison to the base case. The overall results indicate that the different occupancy patterns adopted in the simulation model have a significant impact on the predicted duration of overheating which will, in turn, have an impact on determining appropriate retrofit strategies to reduce overheating risks. • The overheating risk is not sufficiently addressed in the UK Building Regulations Approved Documents. • The study demonstrates the importance of real occupancy patterns in predicting overheating risks and heating energy demand. • Retrofitting 1960s tower blocks will have major impact on occupants' thermal comfort and building energy performance. • Improving the U-value of external walls significantly reduce the heating energy use by 70% under future climate scenarios. • Operative temperature increases by 15-17% with U-value of 0.5 and 0.3 W/m2K in comparison to the base case (0.9 W/m2K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]