COMMENT


Cleaning up air quality, one city at a time


Fiona Russell-Horne Editor - BMJ


T


Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,


“


Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.


” INFO PANEL


Builders Merchants Journal Datateam Business Media London Road Maidstone Kent ME15 8LY Tel: 01622 687031 Fax 01622 757646


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101


frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk


Assistant editor Elizabeth Jordan 01622 699186


ejordan@datateam.co.uk


Production Controller: Kirsty Hood


khood@datateam.co.uk


ADVERTISING Business Manager: Max Shannon 01622 699148


mobile 7933 509441 mshannon@datateam.co.uk


North & midlands sales: David Harman 01772 462596


david.harman@talktalk.net


Publisher: Paul Ryder 01622 699105


pryder@datateam.co.uk CIRCULATION


ABC audited average circulation July 2016-June 2017: 7,803


SUBSCRIPTIONS


UK one year: £97 UK, two years: £164 Outside UK: one year £113/$204; two years: £196/$353


© Datateam Business Media Ltd 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall. Suppliers have contributed towards production costs of some photographs in this issue.


ABC audited average circulation


July 2016-June 2017: 7,419


here has been a lot talked in the past few years about the need to encourage householders to use less energy. There has also been a lot of money and effort expended on schemes to ensure this happens. Some of them rather more successful than others (cough: Green Deal anyone?); all of them aiming to ensure we use fewer fossil fuels, contributing less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, whilst keeping our homes as warm/cool as desirable (delete as appropriate depending on current weather conditions).


Thus far, there hasn’t been so much emphasis on businesses. But there are thousands of offices and business premises round the country that are struggling with inefficient heating systems but either can’t afford to replace them, don’t see the point or are too focussed on the actual business to do anything about it.


So, the announcement by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, of the £10 million Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme, is a welcome start. The scheme follows on from Kahn’s Better Boilers scheme which replaced and repaired inefficient and broken boilers in nearly 500 fuel-poor households. That itself followed the “Boris Boilers” Boiler Cashback Scheme of the previous London City Hall incumbent. That did well, incidentally, because it used the most efficient means of getting information about heating to householders - the independent heating installer. And who has the best relationship with the installers? Yup, the merchants.


Anyway, this Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme is not just about helping to save energy though. It also goes hand-in-hand with the Mayor’s other political prioritities, namely helping to boost air quality.


In recent years, both central and local government have tried and failed to bring down air pollution to within legal limits. Hence, the introduction of the Clean Air Zones, now being extended to Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton and who knows where after that. Diesel emissions from transport are the main cause but emissions from the heating of premises are also involved.


As before, the BMF was involved in discussions with London City Hall staff and the heating industry to ensure the scheme was workable and practical. Yes, it’s only in London for now, and yes, it’s only for SMEs but it’s a start, especially since it has stipulated that replacements must be at least 90% efficient gas or LPG boiler with NOx emissions of 40mg/kWh or less, or renewable technology such as heat pumps, solar thermal or connected to a heat network.


It’s a recognition that we all have a part to play in using energy more wisely, not just householders. Including commercial premises shows not only a political determination to tackle poor air quality, but also to change the thinking of smaller business owners towards their day-to-day running costs and get them to look at the bigger picture. Obviously, as the BMF has pointed out, a coherent, fabric-first approach to improve the thermal and energy performance of homes and workplaces would be better, especially if it were countrywide rather than restricted to individual metropolitan authorities.


Still, there’s £10m up for grabs and it’s on a first- come-first-served basis so London merchants with an interest in heating should get themselves ready for, hopefully, an increase in sales.


August 2018 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


5


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52