Energy customers could see their bills rise by up to £183 as nine dual fuel energy tariffs expire at the end of this month. Eight of the nine tariffs expiring will result in higher energy bills for the consumer after 31 August with an average increase of £135.17 per year for those automatically enrolled onto the standard variable tariff. British Gas is the only supplier whose customers will see their annual energy bill drop by around £78.35 when their current tariff expires. The highest increase will be for Scottish Power customers who will see an average rise of £183.10 per year. Go Compare energy spokesperson Ben Wilson said: “While it’s easy to take our eye off the thermostat in the summer months, for those on expiring tariffs, it’s really taking your eye off the ball as well. “With autumn approaching households should be looking ahead to ensure they’re not stung by a price rise as their usage begins to creep up.”  Avro Energy currently offers the cheapest dual fuel tariff, whilst SSE, GB Energy Supply and Npower are within the top ten cheapest, according to the price comparison site, Go Compare. Source link

The joint venture is Keepmoat’s first deal in the build to rent sector with more deals expected. The partnership will deliver homes in the North-west, Yorkshire, the Midlands and north London, with 1,000 construction starts expected over the next 12 months. The homes will be delivered largely on land owned and acquired by Keepmoat. The housebuilder will also design, plan and build the projects. Sigma will lead on the lettings and investment management. Keepmoat chief executive Dave Sheridan said: “Sigma came to us because of our national capability, our great quality product and our efficient supply chain that delivers great value for money. “In 2015 we built over 4,000 homes and our aim is to increase our housing growth by 25 per cent year on year going forwards.” Sigma is also working in partnership Countryside Properties to deliver homes for rent in the West Midlands. Source link

©PA Lakehouse maintains council properties You know the parable of the wise man whose house was built on rock and withstood the rain and wind, but “great was the fall” of the foolish man’s house built on sand? There is an equivalent parable for wannabe public market companies built on water: Lakehouse. Shares in the Romford-based fixer upper of council houses, which floated at 89p in March last year, fell nearly 30 per cent to 34.5p last week. That was after new chairman Ric Piper warned investors to cut their full-year profit expectations by a quarter. More On this topic Small Talk The company has barely been quoted a year and this was its second profit warning. The first one in January triggered a bruising fight between its executive chairman and top shareholders over governance. Lakehouse emerged from that battle with three new board directors including Mr Piper and Steven Rawlings, the 62-year-old ex-roofer who founded the group in 1988. Mr Piper wants to put all that behind him and move Lakehouse on. But it will take more than a lick of paint. The company’s woes have been a long time in the making and are in its footings. A lot of the blame can be laid at the door of Stuart Black, Lakehouse’s executive chairman since 2008 until he left last month. The group grew fast during his tenure. But cracks began to appear once the company floated. As Mr Piper says ruefully: “When a company is public, the good and bad news is played out in public. The clue is in the name.” Mr Black is the man who abruptly quit as chief executive of rival Mears in 2007. Bob Holt, the plain-speaking founder-chairman who replaced Mr Black, says: “The job was too big for him. He rubbed people up the wrong way. That may be all right in a private company but you can’t get away with things in the public arena. A lot of people want to run a public company but many just aren’t up to it.”  After the first profit warning, Mark Slater of Slater Investments, which holds about 6 per cent, and Mr Rawlings, with 15.5 per cent, called for change. Mr Black quit Lakehouse last month. He refutes criticisms of his governance or strategy, blaming the group’s problems on external factors. It is true that the company is in an industry teeming with rivals competing for work from councils, housing associations and schools whose budgets have been slashed. These are not high-tech contracts. Lakehouse’s 2,400 staff paint railings, mend roofs, read meters, service boilers, renovate kitchens and advise tenants on how to cut their energy bills.  Some of Lakehouse’s problems are out of its control. The company is at the mercy of government policy whether on carbon credits or rent caps — what Mr Piper calls “headwinds”. But the company has also mismanaged projects. Roofing projects cost the business £2m in earnings at the half year, and operating profits, excluding acquisitions and other nasties, fell 80 per cent to £1.7m. Lakehouse spread itself too thinly, acquiring 10 businesses in five years. When one area of its business dipped, it moved into others, such as roofing.  There were clues in the prospectus. Advisers drew neon lights round Lakehouse’s “adjusted ebita”, earnings before negatives such as interest, exceptional costs and amortisation of acquisitions. On that basis, profits doubled in two years from £5.4m to £10.8m in the year to September 2014. But warts-and-all profits before tax fell from £4.1m to £104,000 in those two years and cash levels halved. International accounting regulators are rightly launching a crusade to stop companies and stock market analysts thrusting glossy ebitda numbers in investors’ faces to distract attention from less flattering statutory pre-tax profits. But it is too late for Lakehouse’s backers. One investor says as a rule he does not back initial public offerings: “It is a challenge at the IPO when a company hasn’t got much of a public history and there are lots of things you can’t see.” Lakehouse was an exception but his experience there will not make him less wary. The group was valued at £140m or eight times projected earnings at the float. At 35p, it is four times earnings. That is only cheap if the company does not hose down shareholder expectations again. But that is unlikely given Lakehouse’s proximity to water.  kate.burgess@ft.com Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

China’s independent refineries are becoming more assertive in global oil trading, procuring larger volumes of crude and buying it directly from the market. The country’s so-called “teapot” refineries received some of the first import licenses last year as Beijing looked to boost investment in the energy industry, which has long been dominated by state oil companies Sinopec and PetroChina. More On this topic IN Commodities The teapots — which despite their nickname can be substantial buyers, together representing about a third of China’s total oil refining capacity — have moved quickly to strike deals with some of the world’s largest crude exporters and are finding ways to procure oil that bypass international trading houses. Last month Shandong Chambroad Petrochemicals Company bought a spot cargo of crude oil directly from Saudi Aramco — the state oil company of Opec’s de facto leader and the world’s largest exporter of crude. Now, the company, one of eleven independent refineries permitted to import crude itself, will be the first teapot to start trading on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange as it looks to hedge its imports and buy physical cargoes from Oman. This approach by Shandong Chambroad, say some industry participants, suggests a shift away from the use of middlemen, whether it is big international oil traders or China’s domestic oil industry giants. The DME said the exchange will be approaching more independent Chinese refineries in the coming weeks and plans to hold a roundtable in the country in mid-May “to assist other local participants”. The world’s biggest trading companies, which include Trafigura, Glencore and Vitol, have aggressively sought buyers among China’s 20 independent refineries that are able to use imported crude in their plants. “Some of the teapot refiners have only recently been granted the licenses so they are still learning, said David Wech at consultancy JBC Energy. “They will buy from whomever they can and they will try to buy directly from sources, but it is still early days.” Oil analysts say that just as China’s state-backed energy companies built their own trading divisions to reduce their reliance on western commodity houses, the teapots are following a similar path. They say it is another illustration of China’s growing influence on world oil markets. Owain Johnson, managing director at the DME, said western trading houses still hoped China’s independent refiners would become firm customers even as some of the bigger teapots become more self-sufficient in trading. “It’s hard to overstate the level of interest from suppliers and traders in developing relationships with these guys,” said Mr Johnson. The majority of China’s refineries are very small, local enterprises that will be dependent on bigger players domestically and internationally for crude procurement. Before teapots were granted licenses, only the largest state-owned oil companies were permitted to import crude. Teapots had to reprocess fuel oil or rely on supply from larger rivals. Rapidly increasing energy demand led to China overtaking the US as the world’s largest oil importer in 2014. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

A cargo handling company based in Aberdeen has been fined after a worker suffered serious injury. Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that North East Stevedoring Company Limited (NESC), a cargo handling company was working at Clipper Quay, Aberdeen Harbour. On the morning of 13 June 2013, stows (containers) holding loose pipes were being transported by a forklift truck (operated by an NESC employee) from Clipper Quay to within reach of a crane on the quayside. Christopher Smith, who was employed by Euroline Shipping Company Limited as a ships agent to oversee loading operations, was making his way to the vessel the pipes were to be loaded onto when he was struck on the lower back by the cargo being transported. He suffered a fracture of the left elbow and fractures of several vertebrae. He has not returned to work since the incident. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found that NESC failed to ensure sufficient separation between vehicles and pedestrians. They did not exclude pedestrians from the work area or provide pedestrian routes. There was no safe system of work in place at Clipper Quay. The court was told NESC was ultimately responsible for the arrangement of their work site and the safety of those using it. North East Stevedoring Company Limited, of Streamline Terminal, Blaikies Quay, Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and was fined £12,000. After the hearing, HSE inspector Sarah Liversidge said: “The law states duty holders must ensure the workplace is organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner. “NESC failed in that undertaking, there was insufficient separation between vehicles and pedestrians within the loading area at the Quay that resulted in Mr Smith sustaining serious injury that has prevented him from returning to work.” For further information on vehicles at work visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/ Notes to Editors:  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk Journalists should approach HSE press office with any queries on regional press releases. Source link