UK floods to cost over GBP1.5 billion

The UK floods are likely cause over GBP1.5 billion worth of damage to assets. Though the flooding has eased over the weekend, the clean-up will be gathering pace. CIRIA is kindly offering free online access to its report on the repair of buildings following flooding. Though written primarily for building professionals or insurers who deal with flood damage and repair, it may also be useful to builders, surveyors and householders in commissioning repair work. (more…)

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Homes create 27% of all UK carbon emissions

Currently the energy used to heat, light and run our homes accounts
for 27 per cent of all of the UK’s carbon emissions - around 40
million tonnes - so it is important that carbon reduction measures
impact this sector. The National Federation of Roofing Contractors are
among many calling on Government to reduce VAT on energy efficient and
microgeneration products. Spectus Windows also wrote to remind us to
sign the 5% VAT Petition on the Prime Minister’s No 10 website.

Travis Perkins made a positive contribution with news this week,
opening their first dedicated renewable energy centre. I visited this
when it was still under construction and was impressed with the
working displays of energy saving products and technologies. They also
offer specialist advice to support the trade in using and promoting
renewable energy solutions.

The Low Carbon Innovation Network provided Buildingtalk with a
‘eight-step’ guide on ‘raising staff awareness to gain commitment to
energy efficiency initiatives to reduce carbon emissions’. This
free-to-join Network is well worth signing up to if you have an
interest in how innovation and good practice in our industry can help
tackle climate change.

Wavin Plastics begin a four part series on ‘Finding the right
underfloor heating system’, written specially for Buildingtalk readers.
A reminder that ‘Buildingtalk Exclusives’ do get special highlighting
on the website. These contributions can be industry backgrounders,
enhanced product descriptions or special case studies. You can email
these to me in the usual way but don’t forget to let me know that it
is an exclusive!
mailto:news@buildingtalk.com

We have news of a number of new industry guides this week including a
‘Guide to perimeter fencing’ from Procter Bros, and Avalon look to
answer many of the myths about timber frame homes.

Finally, we had an interesting article from Victorian Woodworks, about
their contribution to the multi-million pound refurbishment of the
Royal Festival Hall. With the improved acoustics, it is now truly now
one the world’s premier concert venues. I went along to the
re-opening last month and was very impressed with this iconic building
from the 1950’s. It was the first post-war building to Grade 1 listed.
The renovation has enabled many of the original aspirations for the
Royal Festival Hall to be achieved. It is a great open public space
with stunning views of the river and well worth a visit.

This comment was originally published in the Buildingtalk Newsletter

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3 million new homes to be built by 2020

The housing crisis, particularly affordable homes for first time buyers, has certainly now risen to the top of the agenda with Gordon Brown, our new Prime Minister, announcing proposals for a massive house building programme, with a total of 3 million new homes to be built by 2020. These targets are to be met through changes in the planning system, new public-private partnerships and the release of surplus public land. Some still fear that green field sites will also come into the equation, particularly after Housing Minister Yvette Cooper refused to deny this prospect. (more…)

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Making the most of new Buildingtalk Exclusives

The latest development in Buildingtalk will be of interest to PR people seeking to gain extra exposure for their clients, as well as companies who do their own PR and who wish to be seen as experts in their field. As well as sending us your regular press releases, consider creating some unique articles just for Buildingtalk.

Buildingtalk Exclusives are articles that do not appear elsewhere on the internet. Typically 400-800 words long, these unique stories are given extra prominence on the site and, as a result, are highly rated by search engines. Buildingtalk Exclusives can be on any topic appropriate to Buildingtalk, and can be submitted at any time (but please make sure to label them as such - submission is by email and companies need to be registered in advance just as for regular press releases).

It is important that the words submitted are genuinely exclusive, which means that they do not appear anywhere else - including the website of the company that submits them.

The real benefit of Buildingtalk Exclusives is that search engines (mainly Google, of course) are increasingly selective about repeated material, and give much better rankings to original copy. By submitting an exclusive, your copy will ride on Buildingtalk’s existing strength and gain even better search rankings, meaning that more of your customers and potential customers will find your article.

In exchange for granting us exclusivity on an article, we will flag it prominently on the Buildingtalk front page, on the contact details page for the company that submits it, on the appropriate product category page, and in the weekly editorial newsletter. There will only be one Buildingtalk Exclusive flagged on the front page at any time.

We think this is a great chance to gain extra prominence on the internet’s most successful building industry news service. Contact me, Howard Chapman, now to discuss any questions you may have - or simply submit your exclusive article in the usual way (but don’t forget to let me know that it is an exclusive).

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Buildingtalk milestone: 20,000 articles

Buildingtalk passed another milestone this week when we added the 20,000th story to our website (Link) - all fully searchable. I have included the actual story in our weekly newsletter update. It turned out to be a list of helpful hints from Fakro GB on installing roof windows. We also had Klober share some hints for builders and roofers on ventilation pitfalls with re-roofs. (more…)

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