Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

The Fuel Poverty bill has been thrown out of parliament as not enough MPs turned up to vote on the bill. With rising energy prices and the challenging financial situation at present surely this was a good move to help those less vulnerable than themselves, who can not claim £60k for a second home.

The Fuel poverty Bill was put forward by David Heath, the Liberal Democrat MP. It is estimated that there are currently 5.5 million households living in fuel poverty; this figure is calculated by the number of people where one tenth or more of their income goes on gas and electricity bills.

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With the property news full of tales of woe in the banking world and the related slump in the housing market, it is easy to overlook some of the better news that the falling price trend has influenced. In an intriguing twist it has emerged from recent research that trading up to a bigger property is now financially less problematic than only a year ago, depending on the size of house one needs to buy.

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The continuing credit crunch is affecting homeowners in great numbers, and with no sign of improvement imminent it could be worth looking at just how efficient your home is.

We all think we have done enough to improve our homes, but how many of us have? And when it comes to the crunch, just how much can be saved and how?

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An interesting initiative by the Scottish government sees an annual prize of £1million offered to the winner of the best scheme for improving energy efficiency. The Scottish Energy Efficiency Design Awards, as they will be known, invite applications from April this year, and the scheme was announced by Scottish Minister for the Environment Michael Russell.

It is said that Scotland is home to a large proportion of ‘hard to treat properties, with the government citing some 650,000 homes, or 28 percent of total housing stock, as being within this category, hence the initiative is seen as driving inspiration for further investigation and research into energy efficiency in the home.

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Continuing Professional Development continues to be a ‘hot topic’ within the domestic energy assessor industry; with accreditation schemes auditing their members and DEAs looking to provide evidence of the required CPD hours.

We were very happy to announce we had been asked to help design a website for Continuing Professional Development for those in the industry in a previous article ‘What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Domestic Energy Assessors?’; and even more pleased to be able to say it is now live !!

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The winter months are when ones attention is turned to keeping homes warm yet many homeowners will be turning on dormant heating systems that could be operating far more efficiently with the help of a few affordable maintenance tips.

Householder’s should keep a close eye on the efficiency of the insulation that is present in the property as a great proportion of heat is lost through poorly insulated walls, windows and heating systems.

In a typical British home, around one-third of the heat produced by a central heating system is rapidly lost through the roof, ceiling and walls. This means that for a poorly insulated property up to £1 out of every £3 spent on heating is being wasted.

So what can the average homeowner do without spending a fortune?

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Water may seem like a never ending commodity to householders – after all, we turn on the tap and its there – but the truth is that a complicated procedure is needed to ensure that each and every home in the UK has a constant supply of usable, clean water.

It’s important, therefore, that we do our bit to keep consumption to less than excessive levels, and here we look at a few easy and recommended methods of saving water in the home.

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With Commercial Energy Performance Certificate (CEPC) legislation now rolled out across the country there has proven to be some confusion in areas of the regulations, particularly with regard to what properties are exempt from needing a CEPC. The biggest area of contention seems to be based on the size of a property.

There is an urban myth that is gaining popularity within the market that non domestic properties of 50 square meters and below are exempt from needing a Commercial Energy Performance Certificate as required by law.

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The domestic energy assessor industry is deveolping from its fledgling existence with ambitious plans to utilise the skill base we have within the UK. The energy assessment industry has met numerous challenges since its inception, certainly during the past year.

Maybe due to the New Year approaching, maybe due to the frustration from the lack of progress made by the Government in certain areas, there has been a noticeable amount of reflection on goals achieved within our industry and future aspirations that would benefit our industry but more so the country and arguably the entire planet.

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This week has seen news released about developments of Home Information Packs and has given rise to speculation about Home Condition Reports (HCR) making a suprise return. The main topics and news within Magaret Beckett’s statement; industry professionals and associated organisation had some expectation of though we were all unsure of the exact timing until recently.

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Our daily lives are dominated by the necessary use of energy; gas and electric are a vital part of every day life. Both are expensive, and seemingly increasing with no signs of halting; we find ourselves evermore needing to look for ways of finding cheaper energy prices, or reducing our energy consumption.

Last week energy companies were threatened with possible legal action due to not passing on wholesale cuts in oil prices to consumers, which are linked to gas and electric prices.

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