New APHC president focuses on building regulations and lobbying activities in inaugural speech Published:  05 July, 2016 In his first speech as national president of the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC), Brian Silvester discussed two important activities focused on improving trading conditions for the quality plumbing and heating contractor. He said: “Over the next year I would like to promote and support the lobbying work that we are engaged in; which I am quite passionate about, and personally believe will bring about much needed change for the betterment of our industry.” Speaking at the annual APHC President’s Dinner on Saturday, Mr Silvester began his speech with a discussion of the independent research currently being undertaken into the lack of enforcement of Building Regulations in the plumbing and heating industry. The new president went on to detail how the research aims both to quantify levels of enforcement activity taking place with relation to Building Regulations work and qualify the experiences of plumbing and heating contractors in this area around on site workmanship standards and the issues they face when applying regulations and competing for work. Emphasising that the key aim of the research is to quantify the impact of current enforcement strategies on the plumbing and heating industry, Mr Silvester explained that the findings, due to be made public by APHC next month, will form the basis of new industry solutions to be presented to government later in the year. Alongside other bodies in our industry, we aim to lobby government for much needed regulatory change in this area. The Association’s president also spoke about APHC’s work, in collaboration with a number of industry partners and larger gas contracting businesses, in bringing about refinements to the ACS gas reassessment requirements. He said that following general concern around ACS’s five-year reassessment requirements, the broad principles of a re-shaped ACS reassessment package have now been ratified by the SMB group, which oversees the scheme. John Thompson, chief executive at APHC, said: “It was great to see Mr Silvester’s passion for the important work APHC is undertaking to improve trading conditions in the plumbing and heating industry. The improvement of Building Regulations enforcement and subtle changes to the ACS reassessment process will certainly be a key priority for him in his second term of office and we wish him the best of luck for what we are sure will be a successful and productive year.” Source link

Report calls for government to rethink domestic heat strategy Published:  15 September, 2016 Think tank Policy Exchange has published a new report – Too hot to handle? – looking at how to decarbonise domestic heating. Richard Howard, head of environment and energy at Policy Exchange and author of the report, outlined that despite being a critical and substantial part of our energy system, heat has been largely overlooked in energy policy debates for years. The report provides a critique of the previous government’s heat strategy, which was developed by the then Department of Energy & Climate Change in 2012 and 2013. Policy Exchange argues that the strategy, which largely focuses on shifting homes to electric heat pumps, looks extremely expensive and difficult to achieve in practice, costing around £300 billion. This takes into account the installation cost of more than £8,500 per heat pump, the cost of upgrading the grid, and the additional 100 Gigawatts of power generation capacity that would be required to meet the demand for electricity. All in all it would cost as much as £12,000 per household to deliver the previous government’s plans to reduce carbon emissions from domestic heating.  The report suggests that the newly created Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) needs to take a fresh look at its approach to decarbonising heat. Policy Exchange also looked at the validity of hydrogen conversion and found that, while on face value it may be appealing, it too carries significant cost and challenges. As a result, Policy Exchange worked with Delta Energy and Environment to develop and model some alternative approaches to decarbonise heating. The analysis shows that an 80% reduction in carbon emissions could be achieved through a combination of: Improving energy efficiency – for example by tightening standards for new build homes and for existing private rented properties, and by linking the stamp duty system to energy performance to encourage households to improve their properties. Making better use of gas – by tightening boiler standards and encouraging people to replace old boilers with new highly efficient boilers. Expanding the use of “greener gases” – for example injecting biomethane into the gas grid, and supporting the development of new technologies, which convert “black bag” residual waste into synthetic biogas. Rolling out heat networks to millions of homes, which in the future will need to use low carbon sources of heat. A more limited rollout of electric heat pumps Policy Exchange proposes that government develops a new heat strategy (most likely as part of the forthcoming Carbon Plan) based on the following broad principles:  A long-term commitment to decarbonising heat – this is a multi-decadal infrastructure challenge, and will require significant political vision and commitment.  Put consumers back at the heart of the heat strategy – the new heat strategy needs to be more consumer-friendly – working with the grain of consumer preferences, and minimising the costs and burdens placed on consumers.  Avoid “picking winners”: Government should avoid setting technology specific targets and “picking winners” and instead create a set of market conditions, which encourage the most cost effective routes to decarbonise heating. To that end, we recommend that the (technology-specific) 2020 Renewable Energy and Renewable Heat targets should be scrapped.  Use carbon pricing to encourage lower carbon solutions: the taxes and levies placed on heating fuels should be adjusted to better reflect their carbon content.  Integrate heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty: Improving energy efficiency is among the most cost-effective routes to decarbonise heat, and offers co-benefits such as reducing fuel poverty. These agendas need to be far more integrated.  A national strategy with a localised approach: The decarbonisation of heat will require a mix of technologies, rather than “one size fits all” solutions, and the best course of action will vary by location and over time. This raises questions about governance and decision-making. Technology and system challenges: The decarbonisation of heat presents significant challenges for the operation of gas and electricity systems. The availability of storage will be key to the deployment of alternative heat technologies. The government needs to focus more research funding on developing and piloting heat and energy efficiency technologies. Source link

Brickvest in partnership with Venn Partners has launched its first commercial real estate debt investment opportunity. Brickvest is an online real estate platform. This is an area that allows investment in institutional grade investment opportunities. This platform also allows investors to actively manage their investment portfolio. Venn Partners was founded in2009 and is a management system that focuses on prime asset-backed direct lending. This scheme with Venn is the first real estate debt product that will be available on the BrickVest site. As a result of the new launce, BrickVest will be able to be the single point of access when dealing with institutional-grade real estate investments. This opportunity with Venn Partners will allow BrickVest users to get at direct lending opportunities form within the European commercial real estate market. Paul House, the leader of the Venn Partners commercial real estate group. House has also been Head of Citigroup’s Real Estate EMEA business. Since the start of the operation in 2013, the team has originated more than €1.5 billion in loans. Being the first commercial real estate debt product available on BrickVest, this new partnership will allow the platform to expand and open up more options for the company. BrickVest users will be able to invest in commercial real estate opportunities through an easy to access online trading platform. Investments can start from a low minimum amount and provides an opportunity that previously was only open to larger institutions. These larger institutions that were able to invest before includes pension funds and insurance companies. The basis of the investment strategy is value-add loans within the mid-market. This practice allows for a strong borrower demand while also allowing investors to create attractive risk adjusted returns. Investing in the UK commercial real estate sector remains attractive despite a cloudy economic future. Exposure to the BrickVest platform allows investors to diversify with other fixed income assets.

With International Womens’ week on the 8th of March, there has been an increase of information promoting Women in trade industries. Sectors like electricians and plumbing have traditionally been categorised under as ‘man jobs’ but with more emphasis on trying to attract women to these positions, there has been a slight shift in mentality. However it is slow progress as currently less than 1% of electricians are female. Although it will take some time before the sector isn’t completely dominated by men, attempts to persuade women to have a career within the trade industry will help equal out the figures. The NICEIC is voluntary regulatory body within the electrical contracting industry. Fulfilling this role for nearly 60 years, with more than 26,000 contractors registered with them; and sectors that cover plumbing, heating renewable and insulation sections of the industry, the NICEIC has a vast reach. The certification body has suggested that more needs to be done to make careers as electricians or plumbers look more open to both boys and girls at school level. Proper education about the industry will improve the chances of women pursuing a trade like electrician as opposed to the more typical hairdressing or childcare roles. The Jobs for the Girls is a campaign created by the NICEIC to try and tempt girls towards the construction sector. The campaign runs from the belief that learning a trade is now akin to going to university. With the high price of University tuition fees and doubtless more increases to come, the appeal of apprenticeships is increasing. The prospect of being able to earn and more importantly gain valuable experience while studying makes more sense than paying the high cost of attending University, with no guarantee of gaining any relevant practical experience and no set job prospects at the end of it. With this change, it would be remiss for the construction industry to not reach out to as many people as possible to expand their workforce, which includes targeting girls, as they represent a previously untapped market of people to train.