SMEs will be bracing themselves as Tax may rise from 17.5% to 20% under the new Conservative Government which could lead to 7,500 jobs being lost in the housing sector. Economists have predicted that the new Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his new Coalition Government will have to raise VAT in its upcoming budget.

The possible increase has caused worry amongst small to medium builders who depend on the domestic repair and maintenance sector.

Richard Diment, director general of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “The industry needs a decision like this like it needs a hole in the head. We commissioned some research by Experion in February and it showed that if VAT rose by 2.5 percentage points it would decrease demand by 2% in the housing repair and maintenance sector and cost around 7,500 jobs.

The caveat is that our industry needs sound public finances, so what we believe is that the tool the government should use is varying rates of VAT for different areas. We would argue that with the fragility of the construction industry it would benefit from a special reduced rate.”

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the Construction Products Association, said: “We would like to see a reduced rate for housing repair and maintenance, but in the current climate it seems unlikely.

We have discussed it with the Treasury in the past and they said, ‘So your want is to give people a lower rate of VAT for building a swimming pool? That’s how it would be seen.” Instead we’re focusing on sustainable products. There is already a list of those with a 5% rate of VAT and we want to update that list.”

The NFB which represents 1,300 small and medium sized contractors said increasing VAT will give “cash in hand cowboys” a much easier time of things and simply make the respectable taxpaying contractors suffer.

NFB Chief Executive Julia Evans said: “We have campaigned for many years to lower the VAT rate on domestic construction work to five per cent in order to close the cost gap that is exploited by cash-in-hand cowboy builders at the expense of reputable taxpaying businesses.

Increasing VAT will simply exacerbate the problem and inevitably drive more homeowners into the arms of rogue traders.”

So in the financial uncertainty using BuilderScrap is more crucial than ever. We can obviously help to save you costs with free or cheap materials or by the reduction of disposable costs. By using us you show your commitment to help both the community and the environment.

Since new sustainable standards were released by the Scottish Government builders and contractors have been left panicking during what is already a critical time for the industry.  Homes for Scotland (an industry group) are worried that the new plans will increase the cost of building a house by £8,000 by adding a ‘carbon premium’.  If this is the case then house prices are sure to rise to meet the new construction costs.  Jonathon Fair, the chief executive of Homes for Scotland believes that the future of sustainable construction lies with the refurbishment of existing properties.  BuilderScrap tends to agree with Fair as our agenda is all about reusing building materials.  Surely it is more sustainable and cost effective to salvage properties, renovating and restoring them rather than building a new one from scratch? 

 The plans dictate that all new homes built in Scotland as of 1^st October 2010 will have to have to be better insulated against sound and be more energy efficient.  Considering that the Scottish construction industry has “already reduced the carbon emissions of new homes by 60% from 1990 levels against the Scottish Government’s overall reduction target of 80% by 2050” (Jonathon Fair) it seems the government are focusing too much of their attention on driving that last 20% as soon as possible.  Whilst the BuilderScrap team are not against any form of sustainable building we have recognised that we are undeniably still in a recession and the construction industry is one of the hardest hit sectors.  However, whilst the recession is no excuse to ignore the need for more environmentally friendly buildings the Government need to focus more time and energy on trying to save costs whilst also saving the environment.  BuilderScrap is one way to do this and there are others out there (take a look at how we can help you now)!  The problem the Scottish Government and building industry are likely to find themselves in is that during the recession people simply can’t afford to pay up to an additional £8,000 for a house, so work is going to dry up and the houses which are built under the new rules may struggle to find a family who can afford to live in them.  However if Jonathon Fair’s advice is taken into account and more attention is paid to existing dwellings Scotland should still be able to reach its targets as long as, as many materials as possible are salvaged and houses already standing are restored.

A message to the Builders, Contractors and everyone who’s been reading, supporting and interacting with us this year… Merry Christmas.

Have a great New Year!

This post reflects energy saving behaviours in the home. At BuilderScrap.com we want to inform our readers, builders and Contractors how the regular public (taken from a sample) feel about those energy saving devices in the home.

What is a water meter?

A water meter is a device that records the amount of water being used in your home for billing purposes, similar to your gas and electricity metering. Your water company checks your water meter to calculate how much to charge you.

Should I get a water meter?

If you have a water meter fitted your charges would be based on the amount of water you use, rather than being a fixed amount each year based on the rateable value (RV) of your property.

Any savings depend on how much you pay now and how much water you use.

At the time of the survey a third (33%) of respondents said they lived in homes with water meters, 63% lived in homes without a meter and 4% indicated that they did not know if there was a water meter in their home. To ensure an accurate response, respondents were given a description of what a water meter was if they were unsure. Compared with the 2007 Defra survey, the proportion of people living in homes with water meters appears to have increased slightly (from 29% in 2007).

More on the frankly remarkable results from ‘home energy use’ Builders and Contractors take note. There is an opportunity here!

All respondents who had not installed cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation or loft insulation (but were able to do so) were asked to say what the main reasons were for not doing so. Those who said they had not heard of that type of insulation and those who said it was not applicable to them were excluded from these questions.

Around 300 respondents (30% of those whose homes were constructed with cavity walls) had not installed cavity wall insulation. Respondents were most likely to say that they had not installed this form of insulation as they could not afford it (27%). Other key reasons provided included never having thought about it (14%), not knowing whether they had it already (11%), because they were waiting until they needed to do other major renovations (9%) and because it would take too long to get costs back through lower energy bills (7%).

Similar reasons were provided by the small proportion (16%) of respondents who had a loft but said they had not installed loft insulation or top-up loft insulation. Cost was the most frequently cited reason – a quarter (23%) said they could not afford to do this, 17% said they were waiting until they needed to do other major renovations, 15% had never thought about it, and 10% said that it required too much effort.

In contrast, respondents whose homes were constructed with solid walls were most likely to say that they had not installed solid wall insulation as they had never thought about it (27%). That said, cost was also a significant factor with one fifth saying that they could not afford to install this form of insulation (20%). Around one in ten indicated that they did not know if they already had it or not (11%) or that they did not know how to go about it or who to ask (8%).

This leads me to the question…. Does the government need to be more proactive when informing homeowners of energy saving options e.g. solid wall insulation. What about Government subsidies?