World Plumbing Day sees Plumb Center sign up to support 2016 Plumber Of The Year competition Published:  11 March, 2016 Today marks World Plumbing Day and, following the success of the competition’s inaugural year in 2015, Plumb Center has joined forces with JT and Bristan to become a partner for the 2016 UK Plumber of the Year. This year’s UK Plumber of the Year will launch on 4 April, when the search begins to find the finest plumber of 2016, rewarding them for their knowledge, service and passion towards fixing the nation’s bathrooms. After a number of strong entrants, last year’s competition saw Josh Colbert from Cambridgeshire win the award for not only his skills and industry knowledge, but for his true passion for the trade. Mr Colbert said: “Winning last year came as a complete shock, I couldn’t believe it when I got the call. I am so grateful for not only the reward itself and amazing prizes that came with it, but the fantastic media exposure I received which generated new opportunities for my business.” A panel of experts from JT, Bristan and Plumb Center will judge the 2016 competition. Plumbers will need to come armed with the tools and knowledge to show they’re worthy of being crowned the best in their field and winning the ultimate prize pot, which will be revealed in April. Source link

Two security companies have been fined after a security guard died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Javaid Iqbal, a 29 year old father of three, was employed by London based KK Security Services Ltd as a security guard on a construction site in Leigh, Wigan. KK Security were sub contracted by Veritas Security (Southern) Ltd, a Southampton based company, despite it being written into the contract from the client that no sub-contracting would take place. Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard that during the early hours of 6th December 2014, the site’s generator failed in sub-zero temperatures and in an attempt to keep warm Mr Iqbal lit some barbecue coals in a wheelbarrow which he placed in a 20 foot steel container used as the site office. Mr Iqbal was found dead by police a few hours later having died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The court also heard that Mr Iqbal had made a number of attempts to re-start the site generator and had sought assistance from both his employers but neither had provided any meaningful assistance to him. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that KK Securities Limited failed to provide a management system to protect the welfare and safety of their employees, particularly lone workers. No real provision had been made by the company for emergency support, the only option open to Mr Iqbal being to ring his employer who was hundreds of miles away and could offer no practical assistance. The investigation also found Veritas Security (Southern) Limited failed to put proper arrangements in place with the site occupier for emergency situations outside office hours, such as a loss of power or heating. HSE Principal inspector Neil Jamieson said after the hearing: “Mr Iqbal should have been required to ring and speak to his company every hour or have some form of panic button. His calls were not being monitored.  Instead of this he was simply required to text in every hour stating that all was well. “This tragic death could have been so easily avoided had either KK Securities Limited or Veritas Security (Southern) Limited made adequate arrangement to regularly check on  Mr Iqbal’s welfare during the quiet hours.  Instead, it appears he was left to fend for himself ”. KK Security Services Ltd, of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £8,000 with £ 4,854 costs. Veritas Security (Southern) Ltd, of St Anne Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £8,000  with £ 6,220  costs. Both parties were also required to pay an additional £120 victims surcharge For guidance on lone working please visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/workers/lone.htm 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

©Alamy The Cruachan dam in Dalmally, Argyll Scottish Power, one of the biggest energy suppliers in Britain, has been fined £18m for poor customer service. The company, which has 3.2m customers, has agreed with Ofgem to pay the third-largest fine in the energy regulator’s history after attracting more than 1m customer complaints between June 2013 and December 2015. More On this topic IN UK Business & Economy The complaints, which followed the company’s move to a new IT system, related to poor handling of calls and billing problems, with 300,000 customers receiving late bills. Dermot Nolan, Ofgem’s chief executive, said: “Scottish Power let its customers down during the implementation of a new IT system. “When things went wrong, it didn’t act quickly enough to fix them. This created frustration and worry for many customers, who also wasted a lot of time trying to contact the supplier by phone. “The £18m payment sends a strong message to all energy companies about the importance of treating consumers well at all times, including while new systems are put in place.” Scottish Power said it would pay up to £15m to vulnerable customers, including those affected by the move to the new IT system. It will pay the other £3m to charity. The company has already paid £30m to customers in compensation. Neil Clitheroe, head of energy retail and generation, said: “In order to upgrade our old IT systems, we invested £200m on new technology to allow us to deliver smarter digital products and services to benefit our customers. “During the complex transition between systems we encountered a range of technical issues. This led to an unacceptable increase in complaints and reduced the quality of our customer service. “We know we need to do more and we will continue to work hard to deliver further improvements, and ensure that our customer service standards return to being amongst the best in the industry.” Scottish Power’s problems are the latest in a string of issues facing the “big six” energy suppliers, which have been criticised by some for not reducing prices and offering poor customer service. Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which?, said: “With poor customer service too often the norm, it’s high time the large energy firms put the basics right for their customers by sorting out shoddy service and complaints handling.” In December, Ofgem fined Npower, another of the big six, £26m for “failing to treat customers fairly” — the biggest fine in its history. The Competition and Markets Authority has accused big energy suppliers of overcharging customers by £1.7bn a year between 2009 and 2013. But it has dropped its proposal to impose a price cap for customers who are on expensive default tariffs, saying it should apply only to those on prepayment meters instead. 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

The latest research from LMS has found that the number of remortgagors consulting brokers has declined since the start of the year, falling to just 35% in March, the lowest amount since September last year and down from 39% in February. It is also 11% lower than the 46% who consulted a broker at the start of the year. This leads to concerns that borrowers may be missing out on competitive rates or the most suitable products for their circumstances as intermediaries can access products not available on the high street. Homeowners are more confident in their own ability to make a decision about remortgaging without consulting a broker likely, in part, to low expectations of a base rate rise. Expectations of a rate rise among remortgagors has fallen four percentage points from 16% in February to 12% in March, the lowest recorded by LMS. Despite the competitive rates currently available, the number who remortgaged to lower their mortgage rate in March was just 57%, a drop of 11 percentage points year-on-year. Motivations for remortgaging The percentage of individuals who remortgaged because they came to the end of their current deal fell to 45%, a five percentage point difference from February’s findings (50%). Nearly one in three (28%) remortgagors opted to increase the size of their loan, with more than one in five (22%) increasing the size of their loan by more than £10,000. The research shows that the number of people remortgaging who did so to help their children buy a home is now at 3%, increasing one percentage point from February (2%). However, there was a month-on-month fall in the number of people remortgaging to pay off other debts in March (8% vs 7%) as well as in the number of people opting to remortgage for home improvements (20% vs 18%). Andy Knee, Chief Executive of LMS, comments: “A persistently low base rate and a host of competitive mortgages on offer may be leading many remortgagors to miss out on the best available rates through apathy. After seven years of a historic low rate, there is no sign of an increase in sight, reducing the motivation of homeowners to remortgage or consider their options. Concerning too, is the fall in the number of remortgagors seeking independent financial advice when remortgaging. While homeowners may feel confident in their ability to remortgage, shopping around is the best way to ensure you take advantage of the most competitive offers that may enable savings of hundreds of pounds each month, and advice can help to navigate the complexities of the mortgage market to find the most suitable product for your circumstances.” Source link