Articles

With energy prices rising for the second time this year, Max Halliwell explores the impact this is likely to have on fuel poverty and looks at what can be done to help.

As we move from a scorching summer towards the cold of winter, the price of energy is in the news again as Ofgem, the industry regulator raised the cap on prices for the second time this year to cover higher wholesale costs that the energy suppliers are facing.

Scottish Power announced an increase of 3.7% or an average of £46 a year for just under a million customers and this news follows similar rises from British Gas with both companies blaming the continuing increases in the price of wholesale energy in the market.
 

The cap on fuel prices will rise in October, increasing the gap between the cost of energy and what people can afford by 9%. This will undoubtedly worsen the issue of inadequately heated homes nationwide.  What can social housing providers do to help their tenants avoid falling into the fuel poverty trap? Joe Bradbury of Housing Association Magazine discusses:

Rising costs
It has now been confirmed that annual energy bills for five million vulnerable households will increase by up to £47 after the UK industry regulator raised the cap on prices for the second time this year on the back of higher wholesale costs.

Metrotile Lightweight Roofing originated in New Zealand over 40 years ago, demonstrating that you should expect so much more from a product as established as the traditional roof tile.

The concept is deceptively simple – press roof tiles from a highly durable, modern material (in this case, the highest quality steel), galvanise with an aluminium, magnesium and zinc (ZAM) compound and cover with a stone-chip coating. The result is a roof tile that, to this day, exceeds the expectations of a traditional modern roof tile by a significant margin and can be seen on rooftops all over the world.

Stannah Lifts has supplied and installed (and will maintain) 38 lift products in Imperial Green, a high-specification development of 75, two-, three- and four-bedroom townhouses and apartments in Hythe, a peaceful, coastal market town on the fringe of Romney Marsh.

Location: Imperial Green nestles in the landscaped grounds of The Hythe Imperial   Hotel, a recently rejuvenated, 19th-century edifice on Princes Parade, overlooking the   English Channel.
Total cost: £4.2 million
Project duration: 2 years.
Award winner: Imperial Green won the prestigious NHBC 2016 accolade, with Phase I   shortlisted for the Kent Design Awards 2012.

Eleanor Johnson, Market Manager for Fittings at Pegler Yorkshire looks at how a combination of push and press technology is becoming a system of choice for more and more plumbing installers and how Housing Associations can identify quality fittings.

It is clear that today’s Housing Associations and their plumbing installers are much more likely to opt for a system that provides cost and time saving benefits over traditional forms of jointing.  Both quality metal push and press systems offer these benefits in abundance!

Figures from the National Housing Federation’s Home Truths report reveal that the average London home now costs £526,000 - 16 times the average Londoner’s salary of £33,000 a year. However, if the mayor does commit to offering the sector priority access to public land, could housing associations help save the day?

The report marked the launch of the 100,000 Affordable Homes for London campaign – an offer from London’s housing associations to help the next mayor tackle the current 151,000-home deficit.

Low supply and high prices are not the only barriers to homeownership highlighted by the research. Rent in the capital now averages £1,461; around a third of the people’s pay packets. 

The social housing sector has been amongst the first to really embrace renewable heating in a drive to combat fuel poverty and bring down carbon emissions.  With leading heat pump manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric launching a new range of Ultra Quiet Ecodan units,HA Magazine visits the company’s manufacturing plant in Livingston to find out more.

The Ecodan range of air source heat pumps has led the market over the past decade with what Mitsubishi Electric claim are “amongst the quietest on the market and designed to provide any home with reliable, trouble-free renewable heating and hot water.”