Legislation and general red tape surrounding listed buildings can often be confusing and open to interpretation by an individual. The situation with Value Added Tax (VAT), charged by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), is just one of many such complications.
To read more, click here.
 A recent High Court ruling decided the local authority in question was not liable for damage caused by their tree as long as they were unaware the tree posed a real risk to the property in question – a new precedent for future cases and a cause to breathe a little easier for local authorities.
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Stamp duty avoidance on £1m+ properties could be causing the Government a loss of £1bn in revenue. With pledges from Mr Osborne earlier this year to tackle tax avoidance, many will be pointing to this as an area he should be scrutinising closely.
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birminghambuildingsurveyors.co.uk – If you’re thinking of letting your commercial premises, the difficult economic climate has made it more important than ever to be aware of your options. Four main types of agreement exist and we describe each to help you make the right decision.
Read on here.
Every year accidents occur on large and small scale construction sites around the country, when due care and attention is not paid to neutralising the threat of un-insulated overhead and underground power cables. We have provided a guide to help you stay safe, whether you’re constructing a 10 storey block of flats, or merely repairing your chimney.
Read our guide here.
21st November saw the Government release their Affordable Housing Plan – a set of measures designed to tackle Britain’s problems of undersupply and overpricing in the housing market – but has it gone far enough?
Read up on the housing plan and critical reaction here.
Inside Housing is offering the chance to win £100 in Marks & Spencer vouchers in exchange for your views on the riots.
Shortly after the riots swept England in August, Inside Housing, the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation launched ‘The Riot Report’ to find out what steps can be taken to help prevent a repeat of the violence. Now they want to know what housing professionals, who work for social landlords operating in areas that experienced riots, think caused the disturbances. What would they like their organisations to do to address the underlying problems?
Have your say here.
Information has been released by the UKTFA (UK Timber frame Association), with backing from the Health & Safety Executive, following a number of high profile inner city building site blazes. Foremost among them was a large explosion at a buidling site in central Bath.
The Association has advised that contractors have a crucial role to play in specifying the right type of system, indiciating that more expensive products are often required, rather than open pannelled timber frame.
To find out more detail on this story, click here for the full article.
Campaigners are lobbying the Welsh government to amend building regulations to ensure carbon monoxide alarms are installed in new homes.
The Carbon Monoxide – Be Alarmed group say only 38% of homes in Wales own a carbon monoxide alarm.
As well as new-build regulations, it wants landlords to be forced to provide alarms in properties as part of annual gas safety inspections.
The Welsh government has been asked to comment.
Members of the group will meet assembly ministers at the Senedd at an event hosted by Islwyn AM Gwyn Price.
Campaign spokeswoman, Christine McGourty, said: “There are two simple steps we’d like the Welsh Government to take.
“Firstly, building regulations should be amended so that new homes come with alarms already installed.
“Secondly, providing an alarm should be part of a landlord’s annual gas safety inspection.”
Attending the event will be Adele Forbes, from Blackwood, in Caerphilly county, who lost her five-year-old son McCauley and her grandparents in 2005 to carbon monoxide poisoning.
McCauley Thomas, five, had been staying with Patrick Chidgey, 71, and his wife Gloria, 68, at Pontllanfraith, near Blackwood, in October 2005.
A Newport inquest heard carbon monoxide had built up in the house because of a blocked chimney from a coal fire.
An investigation showed the chimney had not been swept and the boiler not been serviced for “some time”.
Ms Forbes said: “We hadn’t got round to putting an alarm into our home, and I now have to live with that forever.
“Too many lives are lost or harmed each year because people don’t realise the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“I want every parent in Wales to buy a carbon monoxide alarm this week.
“Believe me, spending £20 on an alarm is worth it – it can protect you and your family from permanent brain damage and it might save your lives.”
Gwyn Price AM said he hoped the event would be a “significant first step to achieving the campaigns objectives, here in Wales”.
The campaign group claims 1.8m people in Wales are at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning because they do not have an alarm.
It says research shows 74% of people are unaware that carbon monoxide – which has no colour, taste or smell – can kill, and only 15% realise it can cause brain damage.
Find a surveyor near you if you think carbon monoxide might be building in your home. Click here to find your nearest Chartered Surveyor.
Source: BBC website.
In an amusing turn of events this week, an engineering contractor working on flood defences at Chalkwell in Southend, Essex, left for a break and returned only to find his digger had been submerged by the rising tide.
Read more here.
