News Roundup For more company news visit www.total-installer.co.uk BUILDING REGS CHANGES DEBATED AT LISTERS CUSTOMER DAY Listers’ customers have been given the lowdown on regulatory change, product innovation and market forecasts, at a customer partnership day. Held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London and attended by Total Installer magazine, the event began with a Q&A panel on the impacts of Part F and Part L, with Jon Vanstone, Chair of Certass TA, Paul Kennington, Technical Director, Veka and Chair of the Systems Group of the GGF, and Listers’ MD Roy Frost. This included a headline overview of Part F, which will place new requirements to ensure new build and replacement installations deliver minimum levels of ventilation from June 15th this year. L-r: Jon Vanstone, Roy Frost and Paul Kennington Including a new requirement to make sure that all habitable rooms and kitchens achieve a minimum 8,000mm 2 equivalent area (EA), and 4,000mm 2 EA in bathrooms, Part F proved a thorny issue. Members of the audience questioned the logic underpinning the legislation but also the practicalities of enforcement, particularly where homeowners were unenthusiastic about their use. This was something later tackled head on by Certass Chair Jon Vanstone, who while acknowledging potential contradictions in the relationship between Parts L (conservation of energy) and Part F, ventilation, warned against reliance on customer disclaimers or indemnities. He said: “You’ve got different drivers at play that don’t really match. At the same time the consumer still doesn’t understand the benefits and that makes pitching trickle vents to the enduser far more difficult. “My advice is that installers should take evidence of whatever they are taking out. Do some basic assessment of the property, look for issues, and look at what the homeowner is doing because there are a lot of retrofit projects going on. Quite often, glazing projects will be part of something bigger.” Veka Technical Director, Paul Kennington, argued that, like it or not, ventilation was fundamental to the creation and maintenance of healthy living spaces and that the negative impact poor air quality had on health, meant that the Government was unlikely to budge. Instead, he suggested that legislation created an opportunity to upsell the benefits to the end user. This was also a theme picked up on by Roy Frost, Listers’ MD. He argued that the industry needed to be better at engaging with government and encouraged installers to participate in the consultation process. He also called for greater collaboration between representative bodies. “We need to speak with one voice”, he said, “We’ve got trickle vent manufacturers, sealed unit manufacturers, glass companies, systems companies – people who are individually keen to sell more of their individual products, and who are pushing their individual agendas. “In my opinion that needs to change and I’m up for the challenge: I’d like to see individual businesses and organisations within our industry come together and approach things more collaboratively, speak with a single voice and to get our message across to Government”, Roy added. Darren Pusey, Technical Director, Listers, picked up the regulatory theme in the next session, talking about Part L and Part F compliance, including the introduction of new Glazpart trickle vent finish options, and the launch of its new Sheerline aluminium offer. Sarah Hitchings, Sales and Marketing Director, Residence Collection, provided an overview of its offer – including compliance with Part L – as well as unveiling its plans for the development of a new dedicated chamfered door frame. The afternoon session was followed with presentations from Kubu, while there were also presentations on Listers’ new customer ordering portal and management tool, Easy Connect; as well as market updates from Listers’ boss, and Chris Tahmasaby from ICAAL. They collectively highlighted a number of headwinds but emphasised that business was still there to be won. The afternoon session was closed off by Ryan Schofield, Business Pilot, and Alex McCulloch from CCS consumer finance, who explained how selling finance could support retail sales. “There’s a huge amount happening in the industry at the moment - Part L, Part F - and in addition to regulatory change a host of other challenges, including price increases and a slight toughening of trading conditions”, Roy concluded. www.listertf.co.uk 10 T I MAY <strong>2022</strong> PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST
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