Category: Uncategorized

Uncategorized, housing, property, real estate, society, London

Smart Ways to Slash Your Energy Bills Today

bruceandholly
Offshore oil platform labeled PETRO-AVANT with a burning flare at sunset
An illuminated offshore oil platform rises above the sea beneath a dramatic sunset sky.

You will have heard about the recent increase in the UK energy price cap. Around 4%, And you will have got the usual advice about moving to fixed price tariffs. Maybe saving you £150 a year on the increased cost. Big deal! In this article we focus on some practical ways in which any householder can make a significant reduction in their energy bills simply by reducing their energy usage to what they actually need. Remember that 400 years ago no- one in the UK had even heard of fossil fuels. Yes there were fewer of us. Under 9 million. And remember that in 1650 most working families lived in a single room. And their diet was whatever they could pull out of the ground. Probably quite healthy by today’s standard. Only rich people ate meat. So you didn’t even need an oven. Just something to boil the peas. Or heat the kettle. If you got too cold you might throw a log on the fire. Or just wrap up.

For me, the biggest contribution to reduced electricity use has been the transition from tungsten filament to modern low energy light bulbs. An 85% saving in energy costs. And do you remember those horrible halogen light bulbs which became part of that transition? The blinding white light? Like a pair of car headlights shining in your face. So now we’re all low energy.

I’m not tempted to take up the £7,500 government grant to replace my gas boiler with a heat pump. It feels too much like an emerging technology. Like being asked to invest in a brick phone. I’m just not going to go there. And even heat pumps burn energy. Replacing gas with more expensive electricity. And I’m not sure it would even work. So I’ll wait until something better comes along. And I’m not rushing out to buy an electric car. I can’t remember the last time I filled my car with petrol. It spends most of its time parked up. I only use it occasionally to stop in seizing up. Living in London, means I am able to use my freedom pass to get about. Combining my freedom pass with a senior rail card makes travel very affordable for me. It only cost me £10 to get from West London to Southend. How cheap is that? Even if I didn’t have a freedom pass, I might still choose to use public transport where it is possible and afforable to do so and maybe purchase a network rail card , which is available to anyone. So I don’t understand why the government isn’t doing more to get people out of their cars and use public transport. What did Rachel Reeves do instead in her first budget? Increase the cap on bus fares from £2 to £3. Not 5% or 10%. But a whacking 50% increase. A £3 bus cap may not sound much. But it’s £6 for a return trip. And £12 if there is two of you. Well that’s really going to encourage bus usage!

Nor am I going to install solar panels on my roof. It’s too much of a fire risk. Like charging an e-bike in my back bedroom. How do I know that it’s going to be correctly installed? And what is the real saving? The thing about solar electricity is that it cannot be stored. It is electrical energy which is being produced when we least need it. And yes – I know that plug-in solar panels have just come on the market. But it feels too much like a toy. Even at a cost of £400 for the equipment, the trickle of energy it would produce would take me 5 years to get payback. And I don’t understand why renewable electricity cannot be stored? In the final part of this article I’m going to list out those simple ways in which you can cut your own energy bills. Here they are

  • Don’t keep your central heating on ‘constant’. Time it so that it only comes on when you need it. Maybe for an hour in the morning and again later in the day. Just to take the chill off. You can always put it on for an extra hour if you need it. But don’t keep it bubbling away.
  • Set your living room thermostat to 20°. Does it really need to be hotter? It means your heating will only come on when you really need it.
  • If, like our ancestors, you spend most of your life in a single room, do you need to heat the whole of your house? Maybe invest in an oil-filled radiator for that room. It will only cost about 50 pence per hour to run even if you are running it full blast. Less if you set the thermostat correctly so that’s it switches off at room temperature.
  • Leave your car parked up and use public transport where it is practical and affordable to do so. Avoid the hassle of pay by phone parking when you go into town. I recently treated my adult sons to a network rail card giving them a 1/3 discount on off-peak travel. I still think that the £40 discounted fare is too much for an off-peak return trip for two adults traveling from Farnborough to London Waterloo. But it’s better than £60. And I hate to think what it would cost at peak times.
  • Microwave, microwave, microwave. Instead of using a conventional oven. Even for things which you are not supposed to microwave, like fish. You can always finish it off in the frying pan. Microwaves use a typical 85% less energy than a conventional oven.
  • If you are unlucky enough to have an oil fired central heating system and have seen a 100% increase in cost since Trump’s war with Iran. My advice? Just switch it off. You’ve probably got an immersion heater if you need hot water for a bath. So use that when you need it. But remember to switch it off.

Uncategorized

Back Heathrow Summer Party

bruceandholly
British Airways airplanes at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 apron and taxiway with one plane taking off
British Airways planes parked and taxiing at Heathrow Terminal 5 on a cloudy day

A few weeks back I received an email inviting me to a summer party for the Back Heathrow Airport Campaign. They want to build a third runway but have faced numerous regulatory hurdles. But isn’t that typical of the UK? Think about HS2. I’m sure that China would have had it built within 6 months. And at half the price.

I accepted the invitation and last Tuesday evening went along to the event at the Indian Gymkhana Club Thornbury Avenue, Osterley. It was different to what I had expected. The event was packed. As well as local business people and other local residents supporting the new runway, there were also representatives from Unite and the GMB Union. The event begin with an hour’s presentation in the large conference hall and we then moved outside into the sunshine, where placards were held up and photographs taken. We then went back into the hall where food was being served. I didn’t join the long queue for the Indian buffet but quietly left and made myself a slice of toast.

career, interview, job; career; money; raise; pay; increase, jobs, Law, Uncategorized

Your First Job: Key Tips for Young Job Seekers

bruceandholly
Aurora Department Store building with large glass windows and people walking outside
Shoppers enter and exit the illuminated Aurora Department Store during evening hours

With more than a million young people in the UK not in employment, education or training (NEETS), getting your first paid job has never been more difficult. But hasn’t getting your first permanent paid job always been difficult? When you have nothing to offer but a few paper qualifications and your enthusiasm? Yes – but it’s never been as difficult is it is today. We start by explaining the reasons for this sad state of affairs before looking at what you can do about it. Here are the reasons:

  • The modern trend of referring to our 16 and 17-year-olds as ‘children’ to be mollycoddled. Mixing them in with 11-year-olds. Banning under 16s from social media instead of making them streetwise. And then wondering why they act stupid. I was 14 years old when I bought my first packet of Players No 6 from a cigarette machine in a fish and chip shop. Just to look ‘big’. But it never did me any harm and I gave up smoking 5 years later. In other cultures it is different. Elsewhere in the world young people are not held back. They are encouraged to ‘grow up’, take on the family responsibilities and contribute. Maybe we can learn something.
  • Language illiteracy. The fact that learning foreign languages is not prioritized in the UK. Instead we expect everyone else in the world to accommodate us. The one thing I remember about learning French at secondary school was that I never actually met anyone who was French. In fact you were more likely to be taught by the woodwork teacher. Has anything improved since? I don’t think so.
  • The regulating away of the Saturday job. Forget paper rounds. No one gets their papers delivered anymore. It was the Saturday job which for many young people provided the gateway to paid employment. Unpaid work experience or internship is no substitute for a wage packet. The fact is that there are now many administrative hurdles for any business thinking about taking on a Saturday worker. If a person is under the age of 16, application has to be made to the local authority for a child employment permit, otherwise employers and public liability insurance might be invalidated. Young people require supervision at the till if they are serving restricted items like alcohol or cigarettes or lottery tickets. For most employers it is just not worth a hassle. Recruiting a Saturday person now requires more than just a 20-minute interview and a gut feeling
  • When you apply for your first ‘proper’ job, you are asking a prospective employer to take a ‘punt’. Because you have nothing to offer but a few paper qualifications and your enthusiasm. But the stakes for a prospective employer are much higher when everyone has day-one ‘rights’.

So what can you do to improve your prospects of getting that first job? Here are some tips:

  • To apply for a job vacancy, you first have to know about it. So you register with agencies. Look around to see what his advertised. Speak to people. But don’t get scammed, If someone asked you to send payment up front or to provide your bank details, you know it is a scam. Or if it is just too good to be true? Like becoming a crypto millionaire.
  • Don’t use AI to write your CV. Chances are it will filch from someone else’s CV. And you want a prospective employer to know about you and not your computer. So it’s got to be original and interesting and packed with examples which only you can talk about. Even using AI to check your spelling or grammar can be dangerous as it will default to American English. So maybe best to refer to an old-fashioned dictionary.
  • The likability factor. No one is going to offer you a job unless they like you. And first impressions count. So you throw away that hoodie and cover up those tattoos. Take a genuine interest in the job which is offered and find out as much as you can about it in advance so that you have something to talk about if you are called for interview. Buy a copy of Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ and read it. Likability can be learned. It’s the basic stuff like taking an interest in people and the world around you; taking the trouble to remember somebody’s name; treating everyone you deal with as ‘important’, even if they are sweeping the streets. Not breaking eye contact to look at your mobile phone.
  • Be presentable. The good news is that it is not expensive to look smart. So go to Primark or order off Amazon. Nobody is going to look at the label.
  • Think about learning another language. Because it will give you work-mobility. If you can speak some of the biggest languages, you can work anywhere in the world. Yes I know it’s difficult. Even though there are excellent programs like Duolingo. Problem is, it’s a solo activity. Everything is online. When you really need someone to practice with.
  • Polish up your communication skills both written and face to face. Remember that most of our communication is non-verbal. Hence the importance of eye contact. Don’t – don’t – don’t look at your phone when you are being interviewed. Switch it off and keep it in your pocket. Even if you don’t like football or cricket, at least listen to the sports news, because you need it for the ‘small talk’. Talking about sport is not going to upset anyone. One of the best ways to improve communication skills is practice. So join your local Toastmasters Club.

In the final part of this post, I’m going to introduce you to the world’s most exciting profession. Here it is

business, career, culture, emotional intelligence, Uncategorized

Embrace Networking Opportunities: Lessons from a London Summer Party

bruceandholly
Facade of the Merchant Taylors' Hall building with classical architectural design
The historic Merchant Taylors’ Hall building in London viewed from the street

Yesterday I had a lovely evening at a summer party at Merchant Taylors’ Hall courtesy of the barristers at Francis Taylor Building. The weather and the vibes couldn’t have been better.

I walked through the open doors the building, not knowing a soul. When I went to collect my name badge i asked if I could glance through the attendance list, all 10 pages of it, just to see if there were any names I recognized. I noticed some firms, including Avison Young, with whom we do business. But my aging eyesight meant that the name badges attendees wore on their lapels were of little use to me. At least not without invading their personal space. But having taken my drink, it only took me about 15 minutes to find somebody I did know. A barrister with whom I had worked many years ago on a couple of planning inquiries and whom I had met a few weeks earlier at another conference organised by the Ecclesiastical Law Society and who introduced me to a retired judge-turned-mediator – who in turn introduced me to other guests including a lady member of the City Corporation with whom we spoke about Smithfield Market. Later on someone shouted out my name, even though I couldn’t remember who they were. But it was someone I used to work with and we quickly got talking and he introduced me to other lawyer acquaintances. So what do I take from all this?

Never refuse an invitation because you are worried that you might not know anyone else who is attending. Because that is what networking is about. And as my late mother once said, “If you refuse an invitation, you might never be invited again”. So be gracious. Always accept courtesy when it is offered.

A very long time ago I attended a free networking course at the Law Society Legal Services Exhibition at Olympia. I went along with Allison, a former work colleague. The course was free because it was promotional. But that didn’t matter. Because I took away a lot. And I bought the book. Like me, the course promoter, was a big fan of the late Dale Carnegie and his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. So what are my networking tips:

  • Get in the habit of accepting invitations when they are offered. If you are not there you can’t network.
  • Take a genuine interest in the people and the world around you so that you have something to talk about. That is always an issue for me because in our house, sport is always a ‘turn-off’.
  • If you don’t get to speak to anybody it doesn’t matter. Just enjoy the vibe. Say hello to the catering staff.
  • Remember that you’re not trying to sell anything. Only yourself.
  • Take the trouble to remember someone’s name. Just in case you meet them again.
  • Stick to the small talk. You’re not trying to make a point. And never criticize or complain.
  • Don’t hand out business cards unless somebody specifically asks for one.
  • Don’t try to work the room. Shaking hands with everyone is not going to get you anywhere.
  • Be sensitive to body language. All conversations have a natural end. You will know when it’s time to move on.
Uncategorized

A quick fix to Britain’s housing crisis

bruceandholly
Photo by cami on Pexels.com

An issue which president-elect Andy Burnham is going to have to grapple with is fixing Britain’s housing crisis. I’m sorry Andy but it’s not as simple as imposing rent controls. That is not the answer. It is the old issue of supply and demand. But supposing there is a way of increasing that supply by half a million homes overnight? It’s not going to solve Britain’s housing crisis. But it will certainly make a difference. I’ll show you how it can be done.

There are already around half a million homes standing empty in the UK which could help ease Britain’s housing crisis if only they could be brought back into beneficial use and occupation. I’m not talking about those properties standing empty because they are going through probate or which are on the market but have yet to find a buyer. No – I’m talking about those properties which are long-term empty and with no realistic prospective of ever being brought back into beneficial use and occupation. Many of those properties have been empty for so long that they are no longer fit for human habitation without expensive capital works to put them back into repair. So what can be done?

Statutory powers already exist to enable councils to take over long-term empty properties and bring them back into beneficial occupation and use. These include the empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) introduced by the Brown government and contained in the Housing Act 2004 as well as the powers which Local Housing Authorities have under Section 17 of the Housing Act 1985 to compulsory acquire empty properties to bring them back into use. So how many EDMOs have actually been made in the past 20 years? Take a guess!

229

Yes really! I don’t have any figures for single property CPOs. But I’m guessing that it ain’t many. The problem is that these procedures are cumbersome and expensive to be of any practical use by local authorities. At a guess I would say it would cost between £10K and £50K to cover the investigatory and legal processes as well as additional costs of making the property fit for occupation. And the council don’t even own the property. CPO is even more expensive with the prospective cost of fighting a public inquiry if the owner objects. So budget for at least £50,000. And that doesn’t even include the cost of acquiring the property together with the additional owner-entitlements including statutory basic loss and disturbance payments. We need something simpler. Something that does not require massive upfront investment on the part of the local authority before they can even take control of the property and bring it up the standard. What we need is a simple power of sale, which enables a local housing authority to take possession of an empty property and put it on the market. Such powers already enable housing authorities to force the sale of an empty property to pay for a council tax debt or any environmental costs which can be charged against the property. But that can only work if there is an outstanding debt. All that the owner has to do is to pay off that debt to make the threat of repossession fall away. What is needed instead is a general ‘power of sale’, which would enable the local authority to take over the property and put it into auction. If capital works are required to make the property habitable, the terms of sale will need to ensure that the incoming purchaser is under an obligation to carry out works to bring the property back into beneficial occupation and use. As an added bonus, there will be no cost to the public purse, as the scheme will be entirely self-financing, with all administrative and legal fees being taken out of the proceeds of sale. Is it really that simple? Doesn’t there also have to be a process? Here is what I propose.

Where it becomes apparent that a property has fallen long-term empty without any realistic prospect of it being brought into beneficial occupation or use without local authority intervention, notice should be served on the registered or reputed owner of the property giving them an opportunity to explain why the property is empty and their proposals to bring it back into beneficial occupational and use. Having considered any owner-response, the local authority will then decide whether to issue a legal document giving itself a statutory power of sale against which the owner will have a 21-day opportunity to appeal to a magistrate’s court. Once the power of sale is confirmed, the authority can then immediately re-secure the property and put it in for auction. If major capital works are required to put the property into a habitable condition, this will have to be made clear in the sale-conditions and responsibility placed on the contract purchaser to put the property back into repair and bring it into beneficial occupation and use. The local authority will then handle the sale and the balance of the sale proceeds, after redemption of any prior mortgage and having taken out the cost of the process, will be placed into a separate deposit account to the credit of the former owner. Do you think it would work? Let’s at least give it a try.