Double Glazing On The Web

The benefits of double glazing are being drummed home by government into our local councils. Hundreds of thousands of pounds have already been spent upgrading windows and doors in council houses and in some cases councils are even being threatened with reduced budgets if their housing standards do not comply with government expectations.

Carbon emissions have now become priority to our UK government and the buck literally will be stopping in some cases. Wasteful Councils should prepare to be named and shamed under the new Carbon Trading Scheme. Among the plans to reduce emissions is double glazing; the insulation properties of double glazing can reduce energy use enormously. New windows and doors also provide better security for occupants, and reduce noise pollution.

Our government and local councils are striving to make a difference and double glazing is helping in that fight! Reduced energy consumption indoors due to improved insulation from your windows and doors is helping to conserve the environment. Keep up the good work folks!

Did you know that the phrase daylight robbery originates from exactly that - a tax on windows? It sounds ludicrous doesn’t it? Nevertheless I heard it firsthand from a London taxi driver so it must be true. Apparently families would brick-up unnecessary windows to avoid paying raising taxes on windows. Eventually an enraged member of parliament spoke out and charged the government with Daylight Robbery!

Remarkable as it sounds, it seems that although progress has brought with it all the benefits of double glazing, we as a nation haven’t come so far.  It was only a few months ago that I was writing about a possible government initiative that would see the implementation of a tax on properties that would take into account views, conservatories and … you guessed it double glazing!

With the world’s leaders meeting in Copenhagen this December for the UN summit on Climate Change, the government is coming under increasing pressure to meet our CO2 emissions targets. Frankly, as a leading developed nation, the UK’s performance to date has been shameful. Therefore The Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) are gaining support for their petitioning of the government to introduce a Windows Scrappage Scheme.

If granted the scheme would operate in a similar fashion to the controversial (and not very green) vehicle scrappage scheme, effectively allowing householders and landlords to renew old and badly fitted windows with a cash incentive of £1000, providing it is used to buy professionally installed, energy efficient double glazing.

With the glazing industry currently representing in the region of 100,000 jobs, it is hoped that as well as reducing CO2 emissions, it would also boost employment figures, not to mention reducing consumer’s energy bills.

The petition is available on the official website of the Prime Minister: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/windowscrappage.

Ludicrous new plans have been unearthed regarding a new government stealth tax on everything from views, to parking spaces, patios and conservatories! The proposed taxation on would be imposed through the council tax system and has already come under serious scrutiny and heavy opposition .

Perhaps more controversial than the proposed tax itself is the investigative work, already undertaken by the Labour government, into over 100,000 individual homes. Aside from the strong moral objection to the nanny state, surely the money spent alone in employing tax collectors to carry out in-depth assessments on everything from the width of a balcony to the extent of the view, cannot possibly be justified?

The extent of the surveying is mind-boggling; even the difference in the type of conservatory would be considered a contributory factor when calculating the level of added tax. The Valuation Office Agency, which is compiling the massive database of every home, has divided the three-quarters of a million people with conservatories into groups, for example, double-glazed conservatories will be hit harder than those with single glazing or lean-to’s.

Malcolm Moss, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, has today been quoted as saying “Only Labour would think of taxing people for having double-glazed windows or a patio. I hope Gordon Brown will see sense and scrap these plans immediately.” – We can but hope!

The government are backing a new competition launched this month designed to promote energy efficiency within Britain’s communities.  

British Gas who are currently spear heading the environmental message, will donate £2 million to be distributed amongst community groups best able to make use of measures such as double glazing and insulation.

The scheme is designed to help generate energy-saving ideas for public buildings throughout the UK.

Yet more proof that simple measures like double glazing, really can make a difference in reducing the nations carbon emissions not to mention our heating bills!

In a bid to stop people turning to cowboy workmen, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has urged the government to drop VAT on home renovations, such as double glazing, insulation and other improvement work from the current level of 15%t to just 5%.

Supported by the National Home Improvement Council (NHIC), the FSB acknowledges that by avoiding VAT, cowboy builders have been able to offer discounts on work. The warning to homeowners is that employing an unqualified builder can prove a false economy as projects are left unfinished and can often fail to meet necessary standards.

 Joergen Jensen, regular columnist for Director of Finance Online, has spoken out about the government’s latest vehicle scrappage scheme by saying:

 “The money should rather be used to encourage people to insulate their houses better and replace single glazing windows with double glazing windows. That doesn’t destroy value, but creates lasting value and at the same time reduces the CO2 emission and cuts future heating bills.”

Personally I don’t think the industry could have a better endorsement. Proof that as a product, double glazing is environmentally friendly and an economically viable investment.