John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government, has formally launched a unique public-private partnership project to construct the first affordable eco-home for the mass market.

The Met Office has forecast ‘a barbeque summer’, which will see warmer temperatures and rainfall potentially below average. The Department of Health has even issued a ‘Heatwave Plan’ to advise the population on how to cope with the predicted high temperatures. And although the good weather is welcome news for most people, a lack of rainfall over a long period can cause serious problems.

Steve Millward, the sustainability and quality director at building supplier Jewson, has called for an extension of the ‘car scrappage’ scheme announced in the Budget to domestic heating boilers.

A small Welsh company that has developed world-beating technology to produce ultra-low carbon cement from industrial by-products is attracting interest from around the world. Cenin Ltd is the company behind the technology. It has established an R&D centre on Stormy Down, near Bridgend, where it has also opened a small production plant.