News general

Hosepipe bans in the UK

It was announced this week that the North West region of England will be under water use restrictions from midnight on Friday 9th July 2010.  This is the first region-wide “hosepipe ban” as it’s commonly called for four years.  Last time it was the Thames and parts of East Anglia that had the restrictions.  Whilst it has happened before in the traditionally wetter North West, it is perhaps the most surprising that this region has been “hit” first.  It was only in the late Autumn last year that parts of this area were actually under water, from serious flooding.  Is this an indication to future events, as the UK’s water becomes under more stress from increased populous and climate change?  Or is it simply part of natural variations?  Either way, it is very serious if things get worse.  Not washing your car or watering your grass is hardly life threatening, but alarming reports suggest that significant rainfall until October.  Could we see more serious cuts to the most basic of supplies?

Saving water

We all waste water or perhaps we use more than is really necessary.  For example, does the car really need a weekly wash, just to impress the neighbours?  Do you really need that full bath or 20 minute shower?  Could you wait for a full load before turning on that washing machine?  Does the grass need to be watered?  Grass is very hardy and even when completely brown for weeks, will turn green at the first sniff of rain.

HIPS and energy performance certificates

There was some very interesting news today.  The new UK government has announced that the infamous Home Information Packs or HIPS have been suspended with immediate effect.  They were brought in by the previous Labour government and were first brought in around 2004 and then made mandatory in 2007.  They were critised by many due to the amount of red tape and costs involved.  It will be very difficult to actually assess their effectiveness as they operated during a very difficult economic time, a time when house prices fell by about 40% from their peaks.  They were designed to make selling and buying more secure from the point of view of the buyers being fully aware of the pitfalls of buying a house.  It was the sellers responsibility to obtain a report at a cost of around £600, whereas before it was up to the buyer to decide on the level of survey and searches.  It will be very interesting to see how this pans out.  After all many estate agents and people in this industry have not only geared up, but paid for training.  Others have set-up business’ and now seem set to lose their markets.

Your probably thinking, this blog is about energy, water and eco/environmental issues.  Well HIPS are, why?  Well if the HIPS were highlighting short-coming will properties, then surely this was raising the standards of the housing stock being sold?  Another important part of the HIPS was the energy performance certificates.  It’s great news to report that these certificates will remain in place and hopefully this will encourage loft insulation, cavity wall, better fuel efficient boilers and other energy measures.  How exactly these certificates will be created is yet a little unclear.  It’s hard to imagine an industry going around producing these certificates, but maybe it will be tagged onto the the traditional surveys.  In my opinion, it just shows that this new government is committed to the environment, but hopefully very good at cutting red tape.