COMMENT


All talk and no trousers?


R


emember when erstwhile Prime Minister David Cameron said his would be the ‘greenest Government ever’. Well, we all know how that turned out. It looks as though, despite earlier promises that the UK would ‘Build back better and Build Back Greener’, this Government isn’t going to be much greener either. Oh sure, there has been a lot of talk about the need to be green, but not much action. And by action, I really mean cold, hard cash to ensure that stuff actually happens.


The Budget 2021 was a bit of a damp squib, to be honest. I’m sure, what with having to pay for the Fight against Corona, no-one was really expecting Rishi Sunak to splash the cash with quite the largesse he’d shown over the past 18 months, but still, a bit more commitment to the climate change fight would have been good. Especially bearing in mind our supposed leading role in the COP26 climate summit.


Over the past thirty years, world leaders have gathered and talked and made promises and commitments, much of which have stayed in the archives. For years we have bene told of the pressing need to recycle more, to use fewer plastics, to use less of pretty much everything apart from solar, wind and yes, nuclear power. The world is still an engine powered by fossil fuels and one that still gets its moving parts clogged up with plastics.


The need for change is as pressing as ever. In fact, it’s more important now that we do something, simply because we didn’t do it before, or not enough of it. Successive governments – whether Conservative, Tory-Lib Dem coalition or Labour – have all pronounced, promised and then prevaricated. They’ve made sweeping, headline grabbing announcements, published endless


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documents, policies and reports, but then all of them have left it to individuals and to businesses to actually do something. For example, one of the take-aways from the first few days of COP26 is that big UK firms are now to be forced to show how they intend to move to a low-carbon future. For all its faults, and they were myriad, the EU did bring in a lot of environmental protection. Yet one of the pillars of Brexit was that the UK would be free of EU interference, free to set its own laws and rules. How many of those will be about protecting the planet and how many about whether we can revert to buying our tomatoes by the pound? Incidentally, I started school in 1971, and I was never taught in imperial measures, so the number of people for whom a pound of carrots is a recognisable unit of measurement must be reducing every year.


Sunak’s Budget last month was disappointing in its omission of any real commitment to improving the housing stock of the UK. World leaders can pontificate all they like in Glasgow, but if we are to get anywhere near matching their ambitions on net zero, we need to get our houses in order. All of us. The Heat and Building Strategy does go some way to start this process, and the grant to replace gas boilers with heat pumps will be a good thing for those whose properties will suit the technology. However, not every home is suitable for a heat pump, whether air or ground source, whether that’s because of their location, the type of heating system they have or the fact that they are under- insulated. Making our houses use less energy to heat them has got to be the first step in the long, long, winding road towards net zero. BMJ


Fiona Russell-Horne Group Managing Editor - BMJ


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There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads onto greatness.


“ William Shakespeare ”


CONTENTS 4 Newsround The latest acquisitions and events


8 News Extra The Budget and the Heat and Building Strategy discussed


12 People


Who’s where and 10 minutes with..


14 BMJ Industry Awards


The Final Shortlist


16 Business Helpdesk How flexible can you be?


18 Merchandising Six things to know about own- branding


20 Merchant Focus A southern merchant with big plans


23 Merchant Focus OTFORD Builders Merchants celebrates 50 years


26 Merchant Focus Myers group revamps its head office with a bit of help


28 Heavyside Focus Looking at brick, blocks and roofing


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34 Sustainability Looking at making the bathroom more sustainable


36 Legislation


Fire safety changes come into the spotlight


38 Decorating It’s all in the preparation


40 BMF Industry Voice The latest news from the BMF


42 Product News New products and developments


46 And Finally The BMJ Prize Crossword


November 2021 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 3


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