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Boiler Scrappage Scheme Expected to Feature in PBR Tomorrow
08 December 2009
Alistair Darling is likely to include a scrappage scheme for boilers in his Pre-Budget Report tomorrow, the 9th of December.
The scrappage scheme, which is pushed under the name “Reheat Britain”, aims to both stimulate an industry hit hard by the recession, and also help to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock – which is still the primary contributor to Co2 emissions in this country.
It is expected that the scheme will take the form of a £300 discount for homeowners who are replacing old, inefficient models, for new greener ones.
An Early Day Motion (EDM), which has been signed by 53 MPS (29 Labour, 2 Tory), reads:
"That this House welcomes the Reheat Britain campaign for a boiler scrappage scheme that would support existing jobs for plumbers, builders and suppliers suffering during the recession as well as creating new green jobs and training places; notes that a household could save more than £200 a year in gas bills with a new boiler and that by replacing just some of the 4.5 million inefficient boilers, thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions could be saved every year as well as supporting British manufacturers; and calls on the government to support this scheme".
Police Call For Greater Accountability from Landlords
09 November 2009
Are you a landlord? If so, you are probably already aware of the increasing instances where tenants are using rental properties in order to use them to grow vast quantities of Cannabis. In Scotland, this industry is now worth more than the legal farming of vegetables, and is often being carried out by gangs from South East Asia.
These gangs can destroy properties with their ‘farming’ operations. I visited one property that had suffered this fate, in suburban Birmingham, and the floorboards throughout the house (including the stairs) had been ripped up, leaving several thousand pounds worth of damage.
The kits used by these gangsters can also pose a serious fire risk.
Now, in Scotland, Det Supt Alan Buchanan of Strathclyde Police, the man leading a Police operation to uncover cannabis growing factories north of the border, has made it clear that he expects landlords to take their responsibility as guardians of not just their own property, but the area that the property is in, more weightily.
Speaking to the
BBC, he said that “60% of property owners affected [by the growing of drugs in their properties] in Scotland have taken no form of identification, have taken cash in hand and couldn't tell the police who's in their house and what it's being used for.”
I would argue that most responsible landlords would not feel comfortable being in a position where they did not know who was living in their property, or what it was being used for.
The 60% figure quoted above shows that it is clearly this type of landlord who allows for the gangs’ criminal activity, and Buchanan ends his interview with the BBC by reminded landlords that if they are getting rent from these gangs then they are directly profiting from illegality and crime.
The
Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has already picked up on this, stating that ‘Buchanan believes that landlords should be provided with more information on their responsibilities when it comes to ensuring that their tenants do not use their rented property for illegal purposes.’
Speaking as a landlord, I cannot imagine being a position where a property of mine would be left for long enough for it to be turned into a cannabis factory without me noticing. However, I personally know two people whom this has happened to. Both of these men are upstanding law abiders, who were at worse naive in not checking both their tenants, and also the upkeep of the property on a regular enough basis. Neither was being paid cash in hand.
There may be a small number of landlords who are aware that they are renting to either people who are in the country illegally (many of the caretakers of these factories are there to pay off people smuggling debts) or even to gangsters. However, the landlord is normally a victim of these criminals, not an accomplice.
Therefore, if there is a legislative attempt to force landlords to screen against the growing of drugs in their properties, they must be supported by the police – whose role should primarily be to give landlords the training and understanding they need to support their work in arresting these people, and reducing the damage that organised crime has on both individual properties and whole societies.
Bank Lending to the Public Down in the Q3
30 September 2009
Britain's banks have owned up to having
reduced the amount of mortgages and other forms of credit that they offer the public in the third quarter of the year.
This is despite them promising the Bank of England and the government that they would make more credit available to the public.
This comes despite the fact that there is a rise in demand for credit items such as mortgages.
The International Monetary Fund has warned that this lack of available credit is a key factor in the ability of the UK economy to rally in this time of credit uncertainty.
There are opposing statements from estate agents and banks. Estate agents are saying that the banks are scuppering deals by under valuing properties ensuring that sales cannot go through.
Banks on the other hand have said to the Bank of England that they have increased the number of loans being approved .
However figures from the Bank of England show that after several months of rises in new mortgage applications, August has seen a downfall of mortgages being approved.
The improved economic conditions have also meant default rates on mortgages have been less than expected in the third quarter. Another sign of the rallying economy however lenders are still not totally confident and expect them to rise slightly in the next three months.
This mixed message has had a mixture of reactions from people in the industry.
There is concern that banks are not doing enough to ensure that the market is back on track but the increase of lending over the last few months is seen as a hopeful sign.
In fact for the coming three months, lenders expect credit availability to improve for both households and firms and for mortgage lending, banks have cited a brighter economic outlook and rising house prices.
Will Homeowners Get Behind A Windows Scrappage Scheme?
16 September 2009
The Glass and Glazing Federation have launched a petition calling on the government to introduce a scrappage scheme as subsidy to new double glazing in UK homes.
Just one week ago top executives from the car industry met with the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, to call for an extension to the UK's car scrappage scheme beyond its current £300m budget.
But now it is the turn of an industry that has been largely left to fend for itself during the downturn to make its claim on the public purse.
The Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) have launched a petition through Downing Street's official website to ask for a scrappage scheme to be extended into the glazing industry.
The view that the double glazing and window industry is worthy of government support is not a new one. Indeed, since May of this year commentators from both inside and outside of this industry have noted that subsidy would not just support the employment base of the industry, but also promote the purchase of a product that would help the government meet its obligation to cut emissions; properly installed energy efficient double glazing.
A similar justification was given by motoring executives earlier this year, when they argued that a scrappage scheme for cars would provide the financial motivation people needed to trade older, less fuel efficient and more polluting vehicals for newer ones.
The implementation of a fully fledge scrappage scheme for the double glazing industry would certainly show a deeper commitment to helping homeowners lower their property's carbon footprint than news of low interest loans for homes that make energy efficient home improvements.
It will be interesting to see whether the GGF's petition can engage homeowners into getting behind their campaign, or if support will only come from within the industry itself.
The GGF initially need 500 signatures on their petition for it to advance. If you want to make your voice heard, simply visit:
petitions.number10.gov.uk
Mortgage Lending Increases, but Borrowers still not Spending
26 August 2009
Figures released yesterday by the British Bankers’ Association show that UK banks increased mortgage approvals by 7% during the month of July this year.
This is almost a twofold increase on November 2008’s figures, but is still far below expected monthly figures outside of the recession, according to analysts.
Quoted in the
Daily Telegraph yesterday, Brigid O’Leart of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said, "While it is encouraging that these numbers have continued to improve, they do not disguise the fact that the housing market is still in a fragile state and that mortgage activity is still limited.”
Whilst increasing lending on mortgages by the banks, even at these tentative levels, will be taken with encouragement by those looking to move in the near future, I would imagine that home improvement and double glazing companies are probably more interested in the spending patterns of those with mortgages, and other debts, to pay off.
The fall in house prices in the UK has battered homeowner equity, whilst the uncertain job market has caused others to focus on their overhanging debts rather than spending on non-essentials, like holidays and, one would presume, home improvement projects.
The assurance of continually rising house prices which
homeowners had during boom times is well and truly on hold, meaning that withdrawing equity to spend on these projects and on other big-ticket consumer goods is difficult to justify.
According to the Institute of Chartered Surveyors, borrowers are currently using any spare cash to pay off debts and increase their equity, which suggests the prevailing assumption that house prices may fall again.
Whether this will result in continued levels of
bankruptcy for smaller firms, or hits on profit margins for the bigger companies, remains to be seen.
Energy Savings from New Windows: Are People Convinced?
12 August 2009
By and large, we in the UK are well aware of our obligation to the environment. In terms of
home improvement and double glazing, both the government and the salespeople tell us that improving the energy efficiency of our properties will not just only reduce carbon emissions, but also help reduce heating costs.
So why are privately rented and owner occupied properties lagging so far behind social housing when it comes to improving the energy efficiency of housing in the UK?
According to the
Communities and Local Government, who conduct a now annual survey of the UK’s housing stock, 21 % of social housing achieves top level Energy Efficiency Ratings (EER).
In contrast, only 10% of properties rented out by private landlords are comparably energy efficient.
In terms of owner occupied properties, just 4% of the UK’s housing stock achieved the top band of energy efficiency.
Even under New Labour, whose public sector has, in many places, slipped into the shrewd, fiscal acquisitiveness normally associated with the private sector, social housing is different to the rest of our housing stock in one crucial way: it is not, or should not, be built, maintained, or rented out with profit as the only deciding factor.
For private homeowners it is normally money saving which motivates
home improvement projects. Does the gap in take up rates between money conscious private homeowners and the public sector betray the fact that private homeowners and landlords are simply not convinced that installing environmentally friendly double glazing makes financial sense?
The Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) have a
nifty tool on their website which works out how much your expected yearly savings will be from installing a specific level of energy efficient window into your home.
For a typical house in the UK, the GGF suggest, installing double glazing should bring about savings of £150.49. This is certainly better than a kick in the teeth, but still a mere fraction of the cost of installing new windows.
Whilst the last government report was based on a sample group who had not yet been fully exposed to the
EU's consumer friendly ‘traffic light’ rating system which has been used on white goods for a while, but only just applied to windows, there is surely a large possibility that homeowners, often confronted with a bill for thousands by double glazing companies, are simply not going to justify installing the most environmentally friendly windows based purely on the potential cost savings – the initial outlay and the potential return are simply too far removed.
Until the government can incentivise homeowners acting green in a cut-and-dry financial way, I doubt that take up levels of energy efficient home improvements in the private sector will ever come close to matching that in the public sector.
Homes in the UK: Modernise for Comfort or Stay in the Past for.....well what exactly?
31 July 2009
I imagine that double glazing companies and their sales staff must have been cheered by the latest government initiative to encourage home owners to adopt energy saving home improvement measures (which we wrote about earlier on this month).
But now it looks like the drive to modernise properties and help reduce the carbon footprint of our nation’s homes could be under threat, due to a survey commissioned by
English Heritage which finds that houses with ‘original features’ – that is houses that have, for example, wooden sashes intact and original door frames still in- sell quicker than houses which remove them.
This is in direct contrast to the survey carried out by the Halifax (
which we also wrote about not long ago) that concluded that homeowners believe that homes with double glazing are more appealing than those without (interestingly, English Heritage’s survey used estate agents as its sample group, whereas the Halifax used home owners).
The government’s English House Condition Survey for 2007 – which has just been published and can be read on the government’s website,
by clicking the link here – found that 40% of late 19th century houses (which comprise vast swathes of the housing stock, especially in our cities) have opted for double glazing at the expense of the ‘original features’ which English Heritage believe homeowners should be encouraged to preserve.
English Heritage believes that a large percentage of England’s conservation areas are under threat.
This threat, they believe, is in homeowners installing
double glazing – or other features, such as
satellite dishes or
new driveways – which are not in keeping with the feel of the area but which are not prohibited by planning regulations (there are over 3,000 conservation areas in England, and regulation vary from area to area and from property to property).
The debate as to whether double glazing helps encourage prospective buyers to sign on the dotted line occasionally crops up.
The two sides to the argument are represented by this new report by English Heritage – which claims, alongside many property relocation TV shows, it must be said – that original features make a house easier to sell, and the Halifax, whose report claimed that homeowners see the presence of double glazing as a positive feature for a house in economic terms, in the sense that it will lower bills, rather than as an aesthetic handicap to a new property.
So why is English Heritage so eager to wave their report around? We imagine that it has very little to do with how double glazing can help improve the security, warmth and noise pollution issues which can come with old wooden sashes, and everything to do with their own axe to grind, which is of course based on their upper middle class sensibility – that areas should look ‘nice’ and ‘proper’ at the expense of anything else.
But what do you think? With the newer double glazed units firms are able to integrate double glazing into older properties without making a complete pig’s ear of how they look (at least in theory).
So should homeowners really be restricted on choosing economical and safe modifications to their own homes when they are relatively normal houses (remember three THOUSAND protected areas in England alone. These properties don't all look like the disney castle or the nice chap in the photo's amazing property, alot of them appear, to my unrefined eyes at least, like very bog standard houses).
UK Government: Low Interest Loans for Energy Efficient Homes
20 July 2009
Since
Home Information Packs (HIPS) have been made compulsory in the UK the financial sense in
making your home energy efficient has been fairly self-evident when it comes to resale value.
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) element of the HIPs effectively rewards homeowners who have made relatively simple measures, such as
retrofitting double glazing, or made more adventurous and expensive changes, such as installing solar panels, wind turbines or bio-energy projects.
As a double incentive, it is often the case that grants are available for this work, as they should be considering the UK’s current drive toward its 2050 emissions quota. For information on this check out the home improvements info on the
government’s website, by clicking here. Often it is the local council who you will ultimately be put in touch with, as access to funding seems a bit hit and miss on nationwide.
To add to this, the government has recently announced that low interest loans are due to be made available to homeowners looking to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
David Adams, chairman of the UK Green Buildings Council, told the
Times Newspaper: "Britain has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent between now and 2050 so we need to cut the emissions from each home to almost zero."
To this end, ‘green mortgages’ of up to £15,000 maybe available for each home, with those who choose not to take out the scheme potentially facing higher council tax bills and higher stamp duty at resale.
Tidy Your House : Advice to Homeowners Looking to Sell, Courtesy of the Halifax
03 July 2009
Halifax Estate Agents, part of the poisoned Lloyds Banking Group, have managed to take their eye of their rocky stock market value for long enough to churn out a questionnaire of 1000 homeowners.
Nice of them to give something back, after the 17billion pounds which tax payers pumped into the company in order for them to get their own house in order. ...
Listing its findings in a press release entitled The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home, the survey found that energy saving features, new windows and double glazing
installations were highly important to people looking to buy new property.
The survey found that external features were the most likely to create a good first impression, with 50% of respondents stating that the exterior of a potential new home is the most important in giving a good or bad first impression.
60% of respondents suggested that new windows/double glazing were considered either essential or desirable for a new property, information which may be of use if you are about to put a property on the market, or have been trying to sell unsuccessfully.
The most important features were the bathroom, the toilet, the sitting room/lounge and having efficient central heating installed.
Of features which negatively influence how a property is perceived by potential buyers, it is little surprise that mould tops the list, with 47% of people claiming that a mouldy room would put them off buying. In addition, lack of parking, lack of a garden and poor fuel efficiency and energy saving measures were all listing as off-putting issues.
Gordon Edwards, Halifax Estate Agents’ managing director, puts it in black and white for us;
"Our research shows that most people are influenced by the kitchen when buying a house. However, you don't need to spend thousands on these rooms when trying to sell. Simple measures like decluttering and keeping a room clean and tidy will make your home more attractive to potential buyers."
This advice may not bolster those who have bought property as an investment, and who are currently cash strapped and looking to sell.
Indeed, it seems that the For Sale signs which appeared and disappeared so quickly during the economic boom have been replaced with those reading To Let, as investors look for revunue streams to keep them going during the recession.
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Is it the Recession or Bureaucracy which is sending Double Glazing companies down?
03 July 2009
It appears that the general economic misery which has seen so many shops on the high-street cease trading has also touched the double glazing industry, with May 2009 seeing an all time high in the number of companies which have ceased trading (320 in total, up from under 50 during the same time period in 2008).
This is, of course, awful for the employees and owners of these businesses, as it adds to the number of people made jobless.
We also worry for the number of customers left hanging in their wake, who may now struggle with guarantees or, worse yet, be chasing liquidators for deposits which have been paid to companies that have hit the wall.
One of the most disturbing aspects of all this is the number of reported instances where companies who have known the financial trouble they were in continued to take deposits and orders from people.
The question is, will the ‘buy local’ type of mentality which is sending shoppers toward independent grocers and butchers rather than supermarkets spread to the double glazing industry?
Or will homeowners go the other way and give their money to the national companies, perceiving them as more stable and deep pocketed, and therefore a safer bet in rocky times?
But is it just the recession which is making it so much harder for smaller double glazing companies?
Research provided by the Forum of Private Business (FPB) suggests that the smallest businesses (those with up to 9 employees) spend 33 hours a month complying with government regulations, whilst small and medium sized businesses (between 10 and 49 employees) spend an average of 131 hours per month complying with regulations – the same as hiring one full time member of staff.
Whilst regulations, especially sensible health and safety regulations, are undoubtedly vital for businesses in many sectors to stop lazy bosses putting their staff in harm’s way, it does seem that the UK has gone regulation mad, and you cannot help but wonder how those small and medium sized double glazing businesses might have been helped during these financially difficult times if the weight of legislation had been taken off their shoulders.
If you are a small or medium sized business double-glazing-forum.com recommends visiting the FPB's website, where there is lots of advice.
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