British Gas has become the latest organisation to sign up to the UK’s main F-Gas register REFCOM as it seeks to keep pace with growing demand for heat pump installations. The energy giant’s social housing subsidiary PH Jones maintains more than 195,000 homes across the UK. It supports 23 social
A property development company that specializes in building and constructing homes all over the United Kingdom known as Avant Homes has recently joined forces with energy provider British Gas. This is a very important occasion for both companies as it involves the first partnership between them as part of Avant
Two businesses have been named to work with the BCIA in a bid to support the delivery of its highly-regarded training courses to a broader, far-reaching audience. The companies, British Gas and Sontay, are both members of the BCIA and have been officially appointed as training partner organisations – then
British Gas has become the latest organisation to sign up to the UK’s main F-Gas register REFCOM as it seeks to keep pace with growing demand for heat pump installations. The energy giant’s social housing subsidiary PH Jones maintains more than 195,000 homes across the UK. It supports 23 social housing providers, has carried out almost half a million service calls and installs more than 11,000 heating systems and 850 renewable projects annually. A growing number of these installations now involve renewable systems with noticeable growth in heat pumps. It is actively recruiting to increase its team of skilled engineers and grow installation work backed up by ongoing expert service and maintenance. With the social housing sector moving more quickly towards low and zero carbon targets than other parts of the residential market, British Gas said upskilling the PH Jones workforce was a priority. “The industry is clearly suffering from an acute skills shortage, and it is crucial that large employers like us step up to address it,” said PH Jones director Matt Isherwood. “As well as bringing new engineers into the sector, we also need to upskill our existing workforce, particularly those already involved in boiler installations and other ‘traditional’ heating projects. “They will be crucial to delivering high performing heat pump systems in line with the government’s ambitions, but the technology does require specialist skills. We recognise the importance of making sure everyone working for us is properly trained, accredited, and able to comply with legislation. Credentials “That is why we were very keen to become REFCOM members as it is the best way to demonstrate our credentials and support higher standards across the sector,” he added. The government has set the industry the challenge of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 – an almost ten-fold increase on current rates – and the Climate Change Committee believes 19 million will have to be installed to meet the country’s net zero carbon emissions target by 2050. PH Jones already has 11 F-gas qualified engineers and a larger team specialising in its renewables work. The agreement it has signed with REFCOM will allow it to eventually register many more certified operatives in line with its plans to expand its workforce. Founded in 1963, it now employs around 600 staff. Its social housing and facilities management business was acquired by British Gas in 2011. It received a ROSPA gold medal in 2019 following five successive years of receiving the prestigious health & safety initiative’s gold award. REFCOM is celebrating 25 years of helping refrigeration and air conditioning companies demonstrate their business and technical credentials and promoting higher professional standards of refrigerant management. Originally set up as a voluntary scheme in 1996 by a group of contractors who wanted to demonstrate their commitment to high professional standards and responsible refrigerant handling, it became the mandatory register for compliance with the European F-Gas regulation in 2009. It recently recorded its 7,000th company membership, which represents an estimated 90% of the total number of firms operating in the refrigeration and air conditioning sectors. The UK continues to ‘mirror’ the F-Gas Regulation despite its departure from the EU, which means that all personnel carrying out installation, commissioning, decommissioning, repairing, maintenance, or servicing of stationary refrigeration, air-conditioning or heat pump equipment that contains or is designed to contain F-Gas refrigerants must hold the relevant designated qualifications.www.phjones.co.uk/www.refcom.org.uk
A property development company that specializes in building and constructing homes all over the United Kingdom known as Avant Homes has recently joined forces with energy provider British Gas. This is a very important occasion for both companies as it involves the first partnership between them as part of Avant Homes’ implementation of an all-inclusive proposition in the way of wireless thermostats known as Hive Active Heating. This special type of thermostat enables the home user to benefit from being able to regulate the heat in their homes wherever they are located so long as they have access to the internet. This means that large amounts of wasted energy can be saved by residents lucky enough to be in homes built and constructed by Avant Homes, who have made this ambitious move in the hope that their customer satisfaction rates will soar to even greater heights than ever before. Operating all over the different expanses of the country in areas that include Scotland and the areas of Yorkshire and the Midlands, this new technological device is being built into Avant locations all over the place throughout the course of the year. Indeed, this is an excellently innovative from Avant Homes who continue to lead the way with flying colors as a major player in the home building industry. As the company’s CEO Colin Lewis explains, the company is always looking at ways in which it can grow and expand to improving the lives of its lucky future residents and part of this means a consistent involvement and exploration of the various forms of technology that are becoming more and more available on the market. In collaborating with British Gas to improve the lives of potential property residents, Avant Homes indicates itself as a prime example of what businesses in the construction sector can do to invest into the future.
Two businesses have been named to work with the BCIA in a bid to support the delivery of its highly-regarded training courses to a broader, far-reaching audience. The companies, British Gas and Sontay, are both members of the BCIA and have been officially appointed as training partner organisations – then becoming the only businesses other than the BCIA to be able to provide much-sought-after Building Controls courses, from BC0 to BC6. With a growing demand for the courses in the wider industry, the move is a direct response to member feedback where a need for supporting the continued delivery of the courses on a larger scale has been highlighted. Of course, the nature of the courses is not to change whatsoever, and the BCIA will maintain its position in issuing any and all certificates for the completion of the courses, but the move will see an increased infrastructure for the delivery of the training at more locations around the UK. As a company with a noted invested interest into training, Sontay, one of the two businesses, nods at the first-class training programme available at its academy, established in 2014, which offers a varied range of courses for the continued professional development of people and businesses. The integration of BCIA courses will see a step forward in the level of training offered by Sontay, whose Managing Director, Sandy Damm, stated: “Partnering with the BCIA is proof of our commitment to training and we are looking forward to a bright working relationship.” Additionally, British Gas has also expressed its excitement to be working with the BCIA on training and, already providing building control management systems, has a keen, invested interest in the industry’s standards, benchmarks and processes. As such, British Gas’ Head of Training Services, Lynsey Partlow nodded to the company’s wider commitment to raising these standards and added: “These new courses allow us both to enhance the training of our own engineers and provide additional support to thousands of others we train each year.”
