in today's news in a sign that the vat man is getting tough over unpaid tax an electrician
is banned for five years the council whose tenants haven't had an electrical safety
check in over a decade and we share some top tips to recession-proof your electrical contracting
business welcome to electrical news weekly in association with Schneider Electric whether
you're listening in the van on site or down at the wholesale counter i'm Joe Robinson and i've been
through the best of the electrical industry news to save you the trouble and as always if you think
you've spotted the words that i've been challenged to shoehorn into this week's news then comment
below or tag us on social media and you could win a prize if you're the first to get it right
it appears that the Vatman is cracking down on unpaid bills and bad record keeping
a Nottingham electrical contractor has just been banned for five years over an estimated
vat liability of a hundred thousand pounds Stuart Palethorpe was the sole director of electrical
installation company On Form Electrical Limited the taxman petitioned to shut the business down
in 2018 due to outstanding vat arrears and the official receiver was appointed as liquidator
the subsequent investigation by the insolvency service found that for the last three years of
trading Palethorpe had failed to ensure that his business paid vat returns
at the point of liquidation Onform owed the public purse £102417 pounds however the lack of records
prevented the official receiver from determining whether money taken from the business's bank
account was used for legitimate business expenditure as a result the high court gave
Stewart Palethorpe a five-year disqualification order it prevents him from becoming involved in
the promotion formation or management of a company without the permission of the court
Dave Elliott chief investigator for the insolvency service said that directors must ensure their
companies pay the correct taxes the electrician's ban should serve as a warning to directors that by
failing to properly account and pay for your tax you could lose the protection of limited liability
in other news it's been revealed that electrical safety checks for hundreds of council tenants have
not been carried out for more than 10 years the investigation carried out by Sandwell metropolitan
borough council in the west midlands discovered that 1245 of its homes were affected the checks
have become mandatory every five years in England for privately rented homes but with exclusions
for social housing however the council said it aimed to carry out outstanding checks by December
the authority said the issue of outstanding checks was mainly due to electrical safety data
not being on a system it could easily track extra electricians have been brought in to deliver EICRs
with a target of 100 every day the target of a regulated electrical contracting sector in
Scotland is driving an increasingly passionate campaign by Select north of the border the crusade
got a boost this week after an unprecedented number of electricians rushed to add their
names to its wall of support at a series of meetings held across Scotland this summer 184
electricians from a wide range of Select member firms gave their backing to the organization's
long-running campaign for protection of title for the profession of electrician the campaign
has also been endorsed by Owen Thompso the mp for Midlothian and the snp chief whip meanwhile
down south in England another campaign has started this time to axe the government's 5
pound grant for heat pumps Mike Foster chief of industry body energy and utilities alliance
says that with the cost of living crisis heat pumps have become far too expensive
for most households even with the support of the boiler upgrade subsidy he says that the government
is out of touch with the British public and that its renewable strategy is dead in the water
Foster suggests that the taxpayer money spent on the boiler upgrade subsidy could be better used
providing insulation for lofts according to data from the energy savings trust the
450 million pounds allotted for heat pumps would provide 850 000 lofts with insulation
this could save households over 200 million pounds a year on bills with spiraling inflation and the
recession looming you too could probably do with saving a few quid on your bills
Dan Pollard founder of Fergus the admin app for electricians has shared his top tips for
tradespeople to recession-proof their business for the coming years the first step is good cash flow
work out your revenue and your fixed commitments if in-goings won't cover outgoings decide what
needs to change set up payment plans to retrieve any owed money don't give credit always take
deposits and invoice every day dan says that if you invoice within 24 hours a customer is much
more likely to pay in a day or two so less likely to skedaddle leaving you holding the bill only
order what you need reduce your non-productive time away from site boost chargeable hours and get
everyone used to working remotely he suggests what he calls remote stand ups these are short meetings
where the team remains on site but catches up via a video call Dan says he has seen these do
wonders for a business they allow you to check in with your team to find out how the jobs are going
and what everyone needs in order to finish on time he suggests doing these a few times a week but
keep it brief so that everyone can maximize their working hours on site these meetings help keep
everyone connected and offer a great service to your customers in product news a Guildford based
company has introduced an innovative DALI lighting control system which uniquely for a DALI system
doesn't need commissioning the multi-load spectrum from TheisCraft allows the installer to set the
DALI groups and the individual aspect of each device via a rotary dial the range comprises six
core products a PSU a switch interface a relay the colour dim rotary dimmer capable of tunable white
control from a modular rotary module a phase dimmer and a PIR detector the PUS supplies DC
voltage for the DALI control devices the DALI switch interface module then allows for two
switch gangs of control when used in group mode and is also available as an emergency test device
TheisCraft says its products can be used as standalone devices and promises that they also
work seamlessly with other manufacturer's equipment to create a complete DALI system
a new EV charge point the plug-and-drive has been introduced by Gibbons engineering group it's the
first in its own range of charges and complements its distribution of ABB's top-end terra AC Wallbox
the plug-and-drive is rated at 7.4 kilowatts and is compatible with all electric and plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles it comes with three RF ID cards perfect for guests or for use without the app
and when using public charging stations also rolling out at the moment is the UK designed
and manufactured EV ISO 1 it is compliant with the new regulations which stipulate that all EV
home charge units must by default be set to charge outside peak hours and that each charging session
must have a randomized delay of up to 10 minutes before starting to charge the EV ISO 1 allows the
customer to override these settings at any point via the large color screen or the app and for more
information on the changes to those regulations please check out the video that Gordon made
on this subject you'll be able to find a link to it in the description below
Yale has introduced a special heavy duty van lock to help in the fight against tool theft
it features a zinc body padlock used for added strength for outdoor applications
and a six-pin cylinder providing top protection against lock-picking attacks
it also has a black powder-coated heavy-duty steel hasp which provides protection against forcible
attacks while reducing the risk of corrosion with outdoor use it is certified to EN12320 and comes
with fixing bolts and a step-by-step instruction manual for easy installation sounds like you'd
need a pneumatic drill to get that thing off in our eFIXX survey this week we asked how you're
buying kit for your installs 32 of you put in traditional orders with your electrical wholesaler
17 of you order online from your wholesaler and almost half of you some 46 are using a mixture of
both it'll be interesting to compare this with the results in a few years time to see how things have
changed and finally an electrician whose boss made comments about his bald head has won a judgment in
his favor at an employment tribunal Tony Finn an employee of the British Bung company in Mirfield
West Yorkshire clashed with his manager Jamie King the court heard Finn was called bald followed by
an expletive will leave that onto your imagination during an argument with King in his ruling
employment judge Jonathan Brain said that although industrial language was commonplace on this West
Yorkshire factory floor in his judgment king crossed the line by making remarks personal to the
claimant about his appearance he said that there is a connection between the word bald on one hand
and the protected characteristic of sex on the other but the judge admitted that a barrister
representing British bond company was right to point out that women as well as men may be bald
in his judgment he found that king made the remark with a view to hurting Finn
by commenting on his appearance the court ruled that sexual discrimination had indeed
taken place well that's all from the follicle challenge news team here at eFIXX for this week
in other great videos coming up this week on our Youtube channel we've got a review of the
Makita cordless kettle and for long-term viewers who remember the Makita cordless coffee machine
you'll know that you're in for a treat with Gary's take on that we've also got a Q and A on measuring
light which explains why my workbench has gone spotty and it's hashtag training Tuesday tomorrow
as we drop a brand new free training module to help you with your CPD on the subject of
lighting controls and how changes to the building rags affect them so keep checking the know-how
page on eFIXX for the live launch of that one it's going to have a major impact on your installations
if you think you know the words that i've smuggled into today's show pop your guess into the comments
and we'll dig out a goody bag prize to the first to get the right answers if you can cast your
mind back that far the hidden words in our last podcast were skin flint and turntable and the
only person to get both was someone going by the name Orzo Orzo so good their parents named them
twice apparently however it was hidden amongst a plethora of other guesses from that individual so
a little bit of cheeky behaviour there but we'll let it slide on this occasion as you were the only
one to get it right anyway to claim your prize also also click the link in the description below
thanks for listening to this episode of electrical news weekly in association with Schneider Electric
make sure you subscribe to receive the next update thanks for listening and until next time
have a great week stay safe out there and remember there's no such thing as a torque calibrated arm