Home sweet homeNational Housing Federation (NHF) has announced 85,000 planned home will no longer be built in England after the government has made the decision to axe the regional house-building targets.

The report which was commissioned by the NHF has revealed that town halls substantially reduced plans for new homes after the new government decided to axe the previous government’s regional building strategies. There were only 123,000 homes built in 2009/10, which is the lowest figure since 1923.

Eric Pickles, the community secretary, dubbed the regional targets “a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building.”

The South-west had the most cancellations with 60,000 new homes being axed.

The NHF warned that the government’s inability to replace the regional targets with another, will probably lead to a further slump in house-building across the country, regardless of local demand for new homes.

David Orr, NHF chief executive, said: “It is frankly disappointing that so many local authorities have decided to revise down the number of homes planned for their areas. Local authorities need to recognise that just because regional targets have gone, housing need has not.”

This seems to be yet another blow to the building trade, the recession is definitely still in effect, which is why it’s more important than ever to obtain discount building materials from builders surplus stores in order to benefit from cheap building materials so I guess that it’s more important than ever to use BuilderScrap.com.

Here at BuilderScrap.com we like to pass on information we hope that our readers will find useful. This post comes from the BBC News Website 1/01/2010. We’re not sure if you’re local Builders surplus stores have any Solar Panels going spare….

Plans to reward eco-friendly householders for the green energy that their solar panels produce have received a muted welcome. The clean energy cashback plan, known as “feed-in tariffs”, offers incentives from April for those who install small scale renewables on their homes. The government claims one in 10 homeowners could fit panels or small wind turbines by 2020. But the scheme has been criticised as not generous enough.

Payments

The UK gets about 5.5% of its electricity from renewable sources and, in order to hit green targets in 10 years’ time, this would have to rise to 30%.

Under the programme, people will be paid a fixed rate by their energy provider for electricity from small renewable power sources. They could also save money on their bills. Homeowners who install photovoltaic panels could earn £900 a year when they first put in the technology, along with saving £140 a year on their bills, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said. Renewable energy groups suggest people will have a 5% to 8% rate of return on their initial green investment for up to 25 years, although this technology remains relatively expensive to install.

Solar panels and wind turbines of up to five megawatts will be paid for the electricity they generate, even if the homeowners used it themselves.

“The feed-in tariff will change the way householders and communities think about their future energy needs, making the payback for investment far shorter than in the past,” said Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

However, the cost of the scheme will come from higher charges for other customers who do not fit renewable energy sources. The typical customer will face an extra £11 on their annual bill by 2020, DECC said.

Lack of incentive

While many consumer groups have welcomed the move, they have also criticised the level of incentive payments provided under the scheme.

“Ministers have been far too timid with a policy that could make a significant contribution to cutting emissions and boosting energy security,” said Dave Timms, of Friends of the Earth.

The Solar Trade Association said the rate of return was half of that seen under other schemes.
And Liz Laine, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said that the scheme could help people make big savings and cut carbon emissions, but more ambitious targets were needed from the government.

“It needs to offer more attractive cashback rates to overcome the cost-barrier of installing this technology and provide better information and advice to consumers,” she said.

Proposals for a second incentive scheme for renewable heat, which will pay people to install technology such as ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers, have also been published. Details will be published in the 2010 Budget.

At BuilderScrap, we are always keen to hear about successful reuse projects.  The following case study shows how, with proper planning and coordination, huge savings can be made on even small projects.  This project reuses many building materials to create a brand new office.

A medium sized contractor in the North West required a new, 18 m² office to be constructed on a mezzanine floor, to accommodate a growth in staff numbers.

Half glazed office partitioning was deconstructed from a client project and installed around the outer edge of the mezzanine.  This was a total of 22 sections.  3 fire doors were also installed along with 3 large radiators.

Although the ceiling tiles were purchased new to avoid a patchwork effect, the grid was reused (approximately 60m²).  Shelving, insulation and plasterboard were also reused, or surplus from previous projects.

Office furniture (3 desks and underdesk filing units) plus swivel chairs were also returned from another project and used in the furnishing of the office.

 If purchasing these materials new, they would have cost £14,010.  To have disposed of them, they would have equalled 3816 kg to landfill.  The volume of these items would have filled approximately 2 roll on roll off skips at a cost of £500 each (plus 3 men for one day at £480).  The total saving equated to £15,490

 The end result was a success, with the office now being used by several members of staff.

If you have any interesting case studies, please let us here at BuilderScrap know.