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FEBRUARY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Governing Body urges
Party Leaders to rethink
housing stock investment
The National Insulation Association (NIA) is
calling on all Party Leaders to commit to making
Energy Efficiency Retrofit an Infrastructure
Investment Priority in their Manifestos.
With over 7 million households lacking solid wall insulation, 6 million
lacking cavity wall insulation and
over seven million having inadequate
loft insulation, Neil Marshall, Chief
Executive of the NIA is calling on
all party leaders to make energy
efficiency retrofit of the nation’s
housing stock a national infrastructure priority supported by additional
funding from the Government Infrastructure budget and to pledge
to provide support to 6 million low
income households by 2025.
Neil Marshall commented: “Recent reports
have highlighted the scale of the problem
and demonstrated why a fresh approach
and step change in funding for energy efficiency and installation rates is needed:
• The rate of insulation installations has
collapsed under the current Energy
Company Obligation and Green Deal and
is well behind the trajectory needed to
achieve the UK’s carbon saving targets
according to the Committee on Climate
Change. At the current rates of installation
it will take:
• Around 150 years to insulate all of the
remaining solid wall properties
• Over 30 years to insulate all of the remaining cavity wall properties
• And around 60 years to insulate all of
the remaining lofts to the correct level
• A recent study by leading think tank
Policy Exchange identified that over one
million of the 2.3 million fuel poor households in England have a family member
at work and that Government funding to
tackle fuel poverty is currently around
£700m-a-year below what is needed.
• Research conducted by Cambridge
Econometrics and Verco for the Energy
Bill Revolution identified that a far more
ambitious home energy efficiency investment programme would pay for itself
and significantly boost the UK economy.
The report revealed that the programme
would:
• Add £13.9 billion annually to the UK
economy by 2030
• Create over 100,000 new jobs
• Deliver average energy savings of
£372 and result in £4.95 billion in
financial savings per year for UK
households by 2030
• Cut gas imports by 25%, boosting
energy security
• Provide a £1.27 return in tax revenue
for every £1 invested by Government”
Neil Marshall added: “The evidence is
there for all to see; the current policies,
programmes and funding are inadequate
and yet the benefits to Government, the
economy and hard pressed householders
from a properly funded energy efficiency
programme are huge. Therefore, today
we are calling on all political parties to go
further and quicker by committing to the
following in their election manifestos:
• To make energy efficiency retrofit of the
UK housing stock a national infrastructure investment priority supported by
appropriate levels of funding and a
robust delivery plan developed with
industry
• As part of the programme, insulate two
million low income homes to EPC band
C by 2020 and all six million low income
homes to band C by 2025
Welsh
Government
to Outlaw
Umbrella
Companies
The Welsh Government
is acting to outlaw the
use of umbrella companies on its construction projects.
UCATT has been campaigning against the use of
umbrella companies since
their wide scale introduction into the construction
industry in April 2014.
Payment via an umbrella
company costs some workers £100 a week.
An umbrella company
acts as an employer to
agency contractors who
work under a fixed term
contract assignment, usually through a recruitment
employment agency. They
invoice the recruitment
agency or client and, when
payment of the invoice is
made, will typically pay the
contractor through PAYE.
In November last year,
UCATT held a demonstration at the A465 Heads of
the Valleys road widening
project, which is being
built by Carillion and
where workers were required to work via umbrella companies.
Following that protest
and pressure from Welsh
Assembly Members,
Edwina Hart the Minister
for Economy, Science and
Transport has confirmed
that no worker on the
A465 will be employed via
an umbrella company. They
will instead be employed
on a standard PAYE basis
either by Carillion or its
own employment agency
Skyblue.
Ms Hart has also announced that she has
instructed her officials to
change the wording of
future Welsh Government
construction contracts to
ensure that umbrella companies cannot be used in
the same way again.
Nick Blundell, UCATT
Regional Secretary for
Wales and the South West,
said: “The use of umbrella
companies is unfair and
exploitative. The decision
of the Welsh Government
to crackdown on their use
both on the A465 and on all
of their contracts is excellent news.”
Mr Blundell added: “This
is a significant victory in
UCATT’s campaign against
umbrella companies. It is
now essential that all other
public sector contracts
introduce similar measures
and umbrella companies are
entirely outlawed.”
Last year UCATT published
The Umbrella Company
Con-Trick a detailed report
into how umbrella companies exploit workers.
To join UCATT or for
further information go to
www.ucatt.org.uk