Residents whose homes are warmed by the district heating system have received bills for the year ahead demanding hundreds of pounds more than they paid last year.

In some cases, residents have been asked to pay up to 75 per cent more – around £400 a year, or £30 a month, extra.

The first they knew of the rise was when bills landed on their doormats yesterday.

The hike applies only to people who have bought or now own former council properties. Tenants are not affected.

Working single mum Sallyanne Lomas, aged 42, who bought her former council house on Short Brook Road, Westfield, three years ago, is furious about a bill for £972 to heat her three-bed terrace.

The bill is up from £672 last year – an increase of 44 per cent.

“This is extortionate,” she told The Star. “I can understand the cost of fuel has risen, and if it was a couple of pounds more, even £10 a month, that would be fine. But nearly £30 a month is ridiculous.”

Sallyanne, mum to Olivia, two, works as a transport controller for waste management firm Veolia.

“Like many other people I have had a pay freeze,” she said. “With other utilities on the rise how do they expect people to make ends meet?”

The district heating scheme links properties from the Bernard Road incinerator as well as to council-run boilers which pump hot water around neighbourhoods.

read more: http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/local-businesses/fury-as-heating-bills-go-up-75-1-4376058

Shropshire Council is spending about £2.6 million to give up to 37 primary schools in the county high-tech biomass boilers, which burn the pellets – a renewable fuel taken from Britain’s sawmills.

The council will borrow the money to pay for the boilers and repay it over 20 years through government subsidies.

Rachel Striven, council sustainability officer, said the project would pay for itself.

The move will also help the council to meet green targets of cutting carbon dioxide by 35 per cent over the next two years.

Work is under way to install the first boiler at Cleobury Mortimer Primary School, and the remainder should be in place by October.

The authority estimates it will save £72,000 in the first year through lower fuel costs and efficiency savings.

The scheme was discussed last night at a meeting of Shropshire Council’s protecting and enhancing our environment scrutiny committee.

The new boilers will sit alongside the schools’ current heating system, with the old oil-burning heating system remaining in place as a back-up.

Councillor Trevor Davies was concerned that if more buildings were converted it would be harder to get supplies.

There’s something almost alchemical about them. The tins are fixed in thick, insulated pouches. You take the plastic lid off and there’s a sort of pointy Allen key inside, which you use to pierce three little holes in the insulation surrounding the tin. Then you wait a couple of minutes, an ominous bubbling begins, steam starts to hiss from the holes, and you panic the can is about to explode and shower you in shrapnel and lava. So you gingerly reread the label through slitted fingers, and it tells you you should have opened the tin first. You hold it at terrified arm’s length like a bomb you’re trying to defuse, lift its ringpull with a spoon, and give everything another 10 minutes to warm through. Or at least that was my experience.

They come in seven inescapably tinny flavours such as beans with meatballs, chicken curry with rice and cheese ravioli in tomato sauce. I had “spicy beef pasta” (at 8 o’clock in the morning – the things you’ll do to deadline). The contents reached 52C according to my kitchen thermometer: emphatically tepid, and best described as a brown, lumpen, heavily spiced sludge. HotCan also sent me “bangers & beanz” but, since that tin didn’t heat properly and its sausages were shrivelled like salted snails, you’ll forgive me if I merely tasted it with my eyes. In all, they’re better than Pot Noodles, in the way that a broken finger is better than a broken arm.

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/mar/23/have-you-tried-self-heating-food?newsfeed=true

The new AMA Research report entitled Builders and Plumbers’ Merchants’ Market – UK 2012-2016 is now available.

This is the 12th edition of the report, which reviews the developments in the merchants’ market, including the market recovery assisted by increased construction output in both domestic and non-domestic sectors, reaching an estimated value of £10.6bn in 2011.

In a statement the company said: “Following some significant changes in the builders and plumbers’ merchants’ market in recent years, the latter is now dominated by 4 national organisations competing in a highly fragmented market with many regional and local merchants.”

“The health of the market is directly related to the performance of the UK building and construction sector, influenced by both new-build and repair, maintenance and improvement activities.”

“Following a significant downturn in performance due to the recession and contraction of the Merchants’ core end-use sectors, the market recovered in 2010 and maintained its value in 2011.”

read more: http://www.hvnplus.co.uk/news/new-plumbing-market-report-available/8628001.article

Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg, said the effort was doomed from the start because it lacked the support of anyone or any authority willing to champion the effort.

A Lockheed Electra 10A, along with several other aircraft, are on display in the current Western Canada Aviation Museum. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

“We couldn’t persuade anyone,” Tugwell said.

The admission from Heritage Winnipeg comes as the Western Canadian Aviation Museum announces its capital campaign for a new museum facility on the site of the old terminal building.

The aviation museum is holding a news conference this morning, where it will introduce city businessmen Art Mauro and Ross Robinson as co-chairmen of the capital campaign.

Tugwell said the save-the-terminal campaign needed the support of the aviation museum, which at one time was considering becoming the main tenant of a renovated terminal building but subsequently withdrew its involvement in favour of the construction of a new facility on the terminal site.

The Winnipeg Airports Authority said there were no viable groups interested in using the old terminal building, which it plans to demolish and redevelop.

The aviation museum’s news conference is set for 11:30 a.m. today at the Calm Air hangar on Morberg Way. Speakers will include Steve Ashton, Manitoba’s minister of transportation and infrastructure, Barry Rempel, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Airports Authority, and Mauro and Robinson.

Robinson is head of B.A. Robinson, the Winni peg-based firm that sells lighting, electrical, heating and plumbing products.

Read more: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/dream-of-saving-old-terminal-wont-fly-137946228.html

It’s not a difficult argument to make, and it goes a little like this: “Hey! We’ve got thousands of homeless people and only build, say, a hundred thousand new homes a year.

You can’t force people into areas that they don’t want to live in – which is where most empty homes are

“Meanwhile, at least 200,000 new households are created every year and there’s all these empty homes sitting vacant. Why not use them?”
On that reading, it does indeed feel like a scandal.

But, as with most aspects of housing, things aren’t quite as straightforward as George, Phil and the gang are making out.

For a start, let’s look at those all-important statistics, which are at the heart of the story. On closer inspection, they do rather dampen down the spirit of the whole thing.

According to the latest figures from Empty Homes – formerly the Empty Homes Agency, the number one charity dealing with the issue – there are some 930,000 unoccupied homes in the UK.

But as of November 2011 only 350,000 – just over a third – are classed as long-term empty, meaning they have been vacant for more than six months.

The rest are merely temporarily vacant, meaning that their owners have a plan for them – whether it is due to a gap in tenancy, having just taken on the property through an estate or even because the owner has moved out while they are doing it up. These are not exactly homes you’d think it was reasonable for anyone to occupy forcibly any time soon.

Let’s look even more closely at the statistics. Talking specifically about England, which has some 730,000 homes classed as empty, 657,000 or so are in the private sector.

Now, it’s fairly simple to understand how those 73,000 empty homes – 10% of the total – that are owned by councils and housing associations can be turned around and brought back into some use.

But the overwhelming majority are in fact privately owned – which makes doing something about them a legal and logistical nightmare.
And unfortunately, this is where it begins to fall down as an argument.

According to Empty Homes, the advice on bringing an empty private dwelling back into use goes as follows: find out who the owners are and then see if they’re interested in selling. Bingo. But even tracking down the owners isn’t easy because, by definition, owners of long-term empty homes are not likely to have any interest in the local area or be readily contactable at the present time.

There are, of course, some powers that local authorities have been granted to get involved in the private sector.

The 2004 Housing Act allowed local authorities to make Empty Dwelling Management Orders, which created quite a lot of controversy at the time, but basically enabled councils to put tenants into empty homes without the owner’s consent. Sounds great in principle, but it is in reality an incredibly complicated process, involving bags of preparation for serving an interim EDMO, dealing with any tribunals, and then serving final notices, and so on.

It’s massively legalistic and applications can get rejected very easily by the tribunals that decide on how to proceed – often for minor transgressions of the process.

As an idea it works brilliantly, but in reality it’s a nightmare.

According to the best figures to hand, fewer than 100 EDMOs have been served successfully so far. It’s hardly making waves.

Having established then that it’s incredibly difficult and bureaucratic to get anything done about long-term empty homes in the private sector, are we actually sure that we want to bother anyway?

The housing market is far from perfect, but usually works quite effectively in matching supply with demand.

In broad terms, if a house becomes empty in a part of the country where people want to live, it has a much better chance of being turned around than in an area that suffers from high unemployment and low housing demand.

Homes are obviously more likely to be used in areas with higher housing demand, meaning you can’t force people into areas that they don’t want to live in – which just happens to be where most of them are.

It’s difficult to generalise from the regional figures published by Empty Homes, but the percentage of a town’s homes that are empty varies from 1-6% – and it’s usually the case that areas experiencing greater economic suffering are at the higher end of this band.

There is also the matter of the two elephants in the room when it comes to housing issues in the early 2010s – energy use and cost.

Ask any housebuilder and they’ll tell you that it’s easier to build a ’green’ house from scratch than it is to upgrade an existing one.

And they will add that by the time you’ve actually upgraded the walls, floor and roof with insulation, installed efficient glazing and improved existing heating and plumbing circuits, in many ways you might as well have knocked it down and started again anyway.

In terms of build cost, obviously the cost of bringing an empty home back to life depends hugely on the state it is in. In many cases, demolition and rebuild is likely to be the most prudent solution.

Coventry City Council is consulting residents and organisations on a new climate change strategy to help dramatically cut UK carbon emissions by a third by 2020.

 It will require everyone to change the way they live, say council officers.

The council and community organisations are backing national measures including the government’s Green Deal.

It will see firms including city-based “Big Six” energy firm E.ON offering up-front payments for households to fit energy-saving improvements such as roof and wall insulation.

Residents will pay the money back in savings from heating bills which have soared by 17 per cent – leading to warnings from charities of deaths and illness among those facing “fuel poverty” and choices between heating and eating.

A scheme is already underway, with support from E.ON, the council and Orbit Housing, to provide free insulation to disadvantaged households in Foleshill.

The climate change strategy will also include the city’s commitment to improve recycling of household rubbish.

New homes by 2026 – up to 850 a year under a new city housing strategy – will be fitted with insulation and renewable energy devices.

It is hoped better public transport links will tackle road congestion and car pollution. Another key project will heat city centre buildings from power generated from the Whitley waste plant in London Road.

Coun Abdul Salam Khan, cabinet member for sustainability, said: “I’m keen as many people as possible have their say. The scale of action means every household, business and organisation will need to do their bit”.

The last few days have seen snow falling in the north of the country, with many parts of Scotland hit by icy conditions.

Severe weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office for much of the nation for the next few days, with the forecasting body warning of freezing temperatures and difficult conditions on the roads, which may affect deliveries of fuel to remote areas.

Alerts have been issued for much of Scotland today (December 6th) and tomorrow, extending into parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland for later in the week.

The Daily Mail reports some parts of Scotland have seen six inches of snow fall, while a further four inches could come down over the next 48 hours.

Temperatures have also plunged to as low as -7.7 degrees C, the newspaper noted, which could result in many households relying on their heating oil supplies in order to stay warm.

Forecaster with MeteoGroup weather service Billy Payne told the publication there will be a serious risk of ice for many roads in the north of the UK over the coming days.

“There will be significant accumulations of snow over higher ground and the rest of the week will continue to be quite unsettled with wintry showers of hail, sleet and more snow,” he stated.

Meanwhile, npower is predicting the low temperatures will lead to a large rise in boiler breakdowns, particularly among homes that have exposed pipes.

It therefore stressed the importance of keeping systems well-maintained, noting an annual service can ensure a boiler continues to work as effectively as possible.

The company also said that during periods of cold weather, it can be more efficient to keep heating on a low temperature constantly, rather that switching it on at full capacity on an intermittent basis.

The Federal Court has already ruled that Jim’s Plumbing, also run by director David Ellingsen, be wound up for unpaid taxed of $1.2 million.

Mr Hart said Mr Ellingsen had told him that the Metropolitan business remained strong but had been dragged down by the failed Jim’s business.

“Metropolitan was a reasonably strong company. It didn’t have financial difficulties but is a contaginant debt, as they say,” he said.

“When his contracts found out Jim’s Plumbing had failed, a lot of major contracts fell over and that cost Metropolitan Plumbing.”

The company  which built its reputation and brand on its “dripping tap” advertisements  is now down to three employees and was subcontracting its work to Jim’s Plumbing.

Callers would make an appointment with Metropolitan Plumbing, which was then serviced by Jim’s Plumbing.

The business transfer arguably could have inflacted the business of Jim’s Plumbing, which is facing legal wrangles over whether an attempt to sell the business for $1 in its dying days amounted to an unfair contract.

The agreement allegedly ties the purchaser, Plumbing & Gas Maintenance & Repair Group, to two annual payments of $1 million if the new business produces a profit of $2.5 million in a year, even though Jim’s Plumbing barely broke even in 2009-10 and lost $2.9 million last financial year.

The Metropolitan Plumbing brand and telephone number will be advertised for sale this week with an expectaction that offers will be closed by the end of next week, Mr Hart said.

“We want a quick sale to maximise the value of the brand,” he said.

The Federation of Petroleum Suppliers noted such a move would lead to increased costs for fuel suppliers making deliveries to rural households, which would be passed on to consumers through higher bills.

Chief executive of the organisation Mark Askew said: “Given that the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) identified many of our members’ customers are in the fuel poverty bracket … any additional costs which are passed on to the end user is only going to make the situation worse.”

He added that many independent forecourts in isolated areas – which often provide a lifeline to local communities – would be badly hit by higher costs, as many of these are already struggling to make ends meet.

Another hike in fuel duty could see a large number of these locations being forced to close, Mr Askew continued.

The high price of fuel was discussed in parliament earlier this week, after a petition calling on the government to rethink its strategy on the tax was signed by over 100,000 members of the public.