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ENERGY
LEGISLATION WILL AFFECT PROPERTY VALUES
NEW Government legislation
on the energy efficiency of buildings will have a significant effect
on property values in the North West and across the country, leaving
landlords exposed to diminishing property values and potentially
unlettable premises, according to experts at commercial property
consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH).
The Energy Act 2011, which has just received Royal Assent, will make
it unlawful to let buildings with F and G rated Energy Performance
Certificates after April, 2018. This means landlords need to act now
to avoid falling property values and significant improvement costs
in the future.
LSH Regional Director, Darren Hughes said the degree of risk
attached to F and G rated properties was high, and would get higher
as the 2018 deadline approached. "Proactive Investors
and landlords should be starting to identify which of their
properties are at risk of falling foul of this new legislation and
putting a plan in place to improve the future environmental
performance of their properties."
Gayle Taylor, Director in LSH’s Manchester office said:- "This
legislation could have a significant impact on the marketability and
value of investment stock well before the 2018 enforcement date.
Investors and Landlords are already under a huge amount of pressure
in the current climate. Additional expenditure will undoubtedly
impact on the market, particularly for secondary stock where we are
already seeing the effect of physical obsolescence on pricing and
marketability."
Government figures suggest that as much as 18% of buildings with an
Energy Performance Certificate fall into the bottom 2 categories,
spread across all asset classes.
Gayle added:- "Statutory compliance costs will increase if
work isn’t done to improve environmental performance. It’s Far
better to identify the reasons for poor performance and carry out
efficiency improvements during routine maintenance or periodic
refits. Landlords also need to revisit their leases to understand to
what extent compliance costs are recoverable from the tenant and
which they will have to bear themselves. Tenants will be reluctant
to agree leases on poor performing buildings, so this will have an
inevitable effect on values.
It’s also important that landlords of D and E rated buildings don’t
get complacent. Falling values will affect them too over time as
regulations get more stringent. Investors and landlords should act
now to secure the highest possible energy rating."
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LOCAL BUSINESS
RAISES £6000 FOR DIABETIES RESEARCH
STAFF at the Polar Ford
dealership in St Helens, together with the other Polar Ford
dealerships across the North West, have been raising money for the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) with a series of
fundraisers, a 2012 charity calendar and even a sky dive. In total,
the dealerships raised £6,000 for the charity, money which will be
used to fund breakthrough diabetes research.
JDRF exists to cure, treat and prevent Type 1 diabetes and invests
in new treatments to keep people with type 1 as healthy as possible
until a cure is found. Ford of Britain announced in 2011 that it
aimed to raise £100,000 for the charity by the end of the year, with
Ford dealerships across the UK contributing to this total.
Speaking of the fundraising activity, John Leeman, regional director
at Polar Ford said:- "A big thank you to all the staff and
customers who purchased our charity calendar and helped raise money
for the JDRF. We had a fantastic time creating the calendar to help
raise much needed funds for the charity which does so much to
support people with diabetes." For more information about the JDRF,
please visit their
website.
Act Now - Unison and
warned the government
COMMENTING on the latest UK
unemployment figures that show a rise of 118,000 to 2.68m in the
three months to November - UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis,
said:- "The government is certainly setting records, but a 17
year high in unemployment and a record number of young people
without work is nothing to be proud of. It must accept that its
economic strategy isn’t working and act now to help people who are
struggling to find a job and stop another generation of young people
being thrown onto the scrapheap. History is repeating itself. Now,
as in the 1980s, the Tories are pushing through cuts and ignoring
the impact of their actions on communities across the country. Low
paid women are also bearing the brunt, as they make up the majority
of the public sector - where 700,000 jobs are being cut by 2017. The
private sector is buckling under the pressure being put on it to
pick up the pieces of the public sector cuts. The government must
get a grip on the economy or watch with despair as figures continue
to rise." |
