20
FEBRUARY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
An Economic
Overview 2015
With the general elections looming, a cooling housing market and problems with
a weakening euro, the next 12 months could prove to be tricky for the UK.
Economic growth through
2014 remained stagnation
and as 2015 gets under way,
it looks as though the UK
is succumbing to the slowdown.
On the up side, the UK is still
likely to grow faster than most
other parts of the world during
2015, however with problems
within the eurozone; mainly accounted for by struggling economies, the UK will not go entirely
untouched and the weaker euro
will definitely impact on Britain’s
biggest export market; forcing
British exporters to hold prices
down or risk losing business.
Other factors include a general
election in May and huge doubt
about the outcome, making companies more cautious to consider
new investment and it is apparent,
that the housing market is cooling again, as valuations become
stretched, also, pointing to a less
buoyant year ahead.
The UK CPI inflation rate fell to
0.5% in December 2014 according
to the Office for National Statistics
(ONS). The drop in inflation reflects falls in global oil prices that
have fed through into lower fuel
‘fall in inflation
will boost the
UK economy’
prices for UK consumers, especially motorists, and falling food
prices that have resulted from a
supermarket price war. Resulting
from these external factors rather
than weakness UK economic
activity, this fall in inflation will
boost the UK economy as consumers have more money available for discretionary spending on
goods and
leisure.
The profitability of UK non-financial corporation’s has improved markedly according
to the latest ONS estimates. The
net rate of return for UK companies was 12% in the third quarter
of 2014, the highest recorded
since 2006. This improvement
was in spite of a sharp decline
in returns for the UK offshore oil
and gas sector, which h as seen by
far the worst levels of profitability
since the survey began in 1997.
By contrast profitability in the
service sector reached a survey
high level of 16.8%, while a 10.9%
net rate of return in the manufacturing sector was the highest since
the beginning of 2002.
Source: ARCADIS International
Construction Costs Report
ENERGY EFFICIENT
WINDOWS MAKE HOMES
MORE AFFORDABLE
Two blocks of new affordable homes in Salford will have even
more affordable heating bills, thanks to high specification energy
efficient windows from Bolton-based Grosvenor Windows Limited.
Grosvenor gained
AECB Silver Standard
accreditation for its
U-Value 1.2 windows
using 6.8mm laminate
glass, Styrofoam LBH-X
inserts in the reinforcement steels, plus
additional gaskets, in
grey VEKA Matrix 70
frames designed and
fabricated by Glazerite
Windows Ltd.
The blocks were part
of a development of 19
affordable and private
residential new properties by Seddon Homes
in the city’s Bowker
Street.
The contract was especially challenging at
the tender stage because
of the requirement for
AECB (Association for
Environment Conscious
Building) Silver Standard
for the affordable homes,
especially achieving
U-Value 1.2 while using
laminated glass, according to Grosvenor Commercial Estimator Lauren
Wilcox. She said:
“The actual installation went extremely
well and was completed
well within the required
timescale. Given such a
demanding specification,
the technical support we
received from Glazerite
and VEKA plc proved
invaluable.”
Glazerite Director Jason
Thompson added: “There
are lots of jobs out
there that can be made
achievable for any competent installer with the
right kind of technical
support, as many of our
installer partners have
already discovered. More
and more commercial
clients and main contractors are taking matters
such as energy efficiency
far more seriously but
this work need not be
out of reach of any professional installer.”
For more information visit
www.glazerite.co.uk
‘this work
need not
be out of
reach of any
professional
installer’