As you may now well be aware, updated Building Regulations were published last week. I explored some of the major points that will directly affect the UK fenestration sector and you can read that particular article here. The major revision that has got everyone talking is Part F and background ventilation. Specifically, trickle vents. [...]
At the end of November, I was kindly invited up to the VEKA facility in Burnley and was shown around their impressive site, and was also given the opportunity to interview Neil Evans, the VEKA UK MD, where we focused on the challenges of 2021, taking over at perhaps the most difficult time, and [...]
The long-awaited revisions to Building Regulations have finally arrived and there are a number of updated regulations that are going to have a direct impact on the fenestration industry. In this post, I am going to mark the noteworthy changes that have significance and try and explain what it means for us all. There [...]
United Front, a group of what was 19 companies and has now swelled to 28, has issued a new statement to the industry amid continuing supply chain problems and very high price inflation. "An open letter" We write this letter as a collective of twenty-eight independent fenestration companies, spanning all shapes, sizes, and different [...]
Another month and another inflation figure that surges past all previous estimates. UK inflation in November spiked to 5.1%, up from 4.2% in October. This blows past estimates of 4.8% and the prediction from the Bank of England that inflation in the UK would rise to 5% in Q1 of 2022. This is a [...]
No, not the rapper. England is moving into Plan B to combat rising cases of the new Omicron COVID variant that scientists say could skyrocket in the coming weeks. Up until the end of November the Government had been insisting that all was going well and that Plan A, the most minimal amount of [...]
The Panoramic Products, consisting of Panoramic Group and Panoramic Door have appointed a liquidator according to documents that are publicly available in The Gazette. Troubles at the company have been well documented on social media for a number of weeks and months now, but this is the first official documentation in the public domain [...]
In positive news for UK fenestration, Saint-Gobain has announced that their project to upgrade their float line facility at Eggborough is now complete. They have released an article on their website in the last few weeks reporting on the completion of the float line upgrades, alongside a video. Here is what their statement says: [...]
You can feel the frustration growing. Prices in the fenestration sector have been rising sharply all year, and the New Year looks set to herald a new wave of very steep price increases across a number of different materials. The sector is frequently taking to social media to vent their frustration at the constant [...]
In news that began to circulate on social media yesterday, Promac (Window Machinery Sales Ltd) have confirmed to industry media that they are to be placed into administration in the coming days. The news of the trouble at Promac is juxtaposed with an industry that is experiencing incredible levels of demand that is putting [...]
We're looking at 2021 in the rearview mirror and starting to look forward to 2022 in the hopes that for the UK fenestration sector, things might be a little bit smoother. It's fair to say this year has been incredibly difficult to navigate. The ongoing pandemic, mixed with a crippled supply chain and price [...]
The arrival of vacuum insulated glazing, or VIG, has got me to thinking about our industry in a much wider sense. The more I look at vacuum insulated glazing, the more I believe it is something we should be looking at in way more detail and energy. But it shouldn't stop at that. In [...]
We live in a post-COP26 and net-zero world now. We can debate the merits of the deal that was struck at the very end of the conference and whether it goes far enough. It doesn’t. But in this post-COP26 world, with climate change at the forefront, everything we do within the UK fenestration sector [...]
Data released today confirmed that the UK is undergoing a rapidly increasing squeeze on the cost of living, with inflation surging to 4.2% in the month of October compared to the same period last year. That is the highest in a decade and will put further pressure on the Bank of England to raise [...]
Change is in the air. Because you know, we haven’t had quite enough change over the past two years. The change this time is coming with Building Regulations. The bit I want to focus on with this one is u-values, or rather, what is going to be the best route to achieve the new [...]
There’s been schemes, groups, initiatives and all manner of other efforts. But the skills and youth gap is worse than ever. Our industry has done a great deal of talking within itself about the problem. We know with incredible detail the range of issues that have caused the problem we find ourselves in. However, [...]
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