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ISO Chemie’s thermal insulating and load bearing bracket support system and sealing tapes have been specified for a new energy improvement initiative being carried out by a northern housing association.
 
The move sees WINFRAMER units being retrofitted at three 1940s – 1960s built houses in Northallerton and Stokesley as part of Yorkshire-based Broadacre Housing Association’s (BHA) pilot project. This will eventually bring hundreds of poorly insulated properties up to zero carbon ready standards and provide improved housing for BHA customers along with long-term cost savings.

Following extensive review, the Government has responded to a 2020 consultation reviewing the ban on the use of combustible materials in the external wall systems of buildings.

There will be several major changes to the Building Regulations and Approved Document B as a result and these will significantly impact how many within the construction industry operate.

David Toal is the new Contracts Manager at commercial installation specialists The Window Company (Contracts). He is already working on several large-scale social housing projects, including one funded by the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund which is using replacement PVC-U windows alongside external wall and loft insulation, air source heat pumps and photovoltaic panels to transform the energy efficiency of hundreds of Fenland properties.

InstallerSHOW is back from 21st to 23rd June and it’s bigger and better than ever this year in a new home at Birmingham’s NEC. InstallerSHOW will bring together over 300 exhibitors, 100 speakers and 10,000 visitors over the three days, with a packed exhibition of all the latest plumbing, heating and electrical products, plus a host of ideas and solutions to help the industry decarbonise buildings on the route to net zero.

The Church of England is taking steps to set up a national housing association which will enable the Church to become a major provider of social housing. It will pioneer a shared land management and development service to develop skills and capacity across its network of dioceses.
In February 2021, the Archbishop’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community published The Coming Home Report, naming the scandal that around 8 million people in England live in overcrowded, unaffordable or unsuitable homes. One year on from that report, Church and industry leaders gathered to review progress and set out plans.

It is an inconvenient truth, but some developers do not want or like to build affordable homes. Many claim they will suffer from significantly reduced profit margins – taking their earnings below 20% - and this is the prime excuse given at the planning stage to try and avoid the issue, according to Global, the country’s fastest growing supplier of home warranties – but says the company - it does not have to be like that.
Most developers do not have a choice and planners will insist that they will have to include some element of affordable properties into the mix, but with the pressure on margins it is inevitable that some will cut corners and deliver poor quality. This in turn can put even more of a strain on margins – a situation, claims Global, that could be avoided by getting it right first time.
Current planning conditions state that developers building between five and nine homes must ensure 20 per cent of them are affordable - more than nine, then this figure rises to 30 per cent. That figure can further rise to 40 per cent for greenfield sites.

Last year’s Heat and Buildings Strategy set out the UK’s route to net zero, when it comes to our buildings, and decarbonising buildings is one of the topics in the spotlight in the elemental content theatres at this year’s InstallerSHOW – including a keynote delivered by Business & Energy Minister Lord Callanan to open the event on 21st June.

Following on from the opening speech, visitors can listen to expert speakers in the free-to-attend theatres addressing issues including large-scale social housing retrofit, local renewable energy generation, the Future Homes Standard and much more.