Archive for category: General News

A family-run heating and plumbing specialist has made a groundbreaking decision to implement a four-day working week for its entire workforce while maintaining full pay.

Custom Heat, based in Rugby and operating across the Midlands and South West, will implement the innovative work model from March 31 to August 31, 2025, following a successful six-month trial. The move positions the company as the first in the heating and construction sector to adopt this progressive approach, setting a new precedent for the industry.

Under the new arrangement, employees will receive 100% of their salary while working 80% of their contractual hours. The initiative will be implemented across the company’s Midlands and South West operations, with careful rostering to ensure continued five-day service delivery with no impact on customer experience.

“We’ve been closely monitoring both employee wellbeing and business metrics throughout our trial period, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive,” said Lincoln Smith, Managing Director at Custom Heat. “Our goal was to create a more sustainable work environment that benefits both our team members and our business outcomes.”

The company’s three-month review of the trial revealed significant benefits: staff retention improved dramatically with a 66.67% reduction in employee turnover compared to the same period in 2023; job applications increased by 250% when positions were advertised with the four-day week benefit; and despite employees working 20% less time, service and repair sales only decreased by 5%, while installation team sales were down just 1%. Fuel costs decreased by up to 32% for some engineers, supporting the company’s sustainability goals, and staff absences due to sickness fell by 17.39% compared to the three months preceding the trial.

Engineers who participated in the trial reported significant benefits both professionally and personally.

Simon Scarfe, 56, who has been with Custom Heat for four years and in the gas industry for 25 years, initially approached the trial with caution.

“I was skeptical and concerned about potential income loss,” said Mr Scarfe. “But once I understood the model, I was happy to try it. Having Wednesdays off allowed me to better balance work with my commitments as a community first responder and spend more time with family.”

The extra day off proved particularly valuable for Mr Scarfe’s volunteer work.

“With the four-day week, I can dedicate more time to emergency medical response in our community. Before, I’d finish work in the evening around 6.30, and I felt I wasn’t doing the first responder scheme justice by just logging on for an hour or two. Now, with Wednesdays off, I can put in a reasonable shift and even accompany double-crewed ambulances for 12-hour shifts during the summer months. It’s made a tremendous difference to my ability to serve the community.”

For Cezary Goman, a 32-year-old service and repair engineer from Coventry who has been with the company for five years, the trial came during a particularly challenging personal time. “When they first told me about it, I had mixed feelings,” explained Mr Goman. “Part of me worried we weren’t busy enough, and I might lose progression opportunities or pay rises. But I was also happy to have an extra day for myself.”

Mr Goman, who took Tuesdays off during the five-week trial period, found the change especially beneficial as his wife had been unwell.

“For three years before the trial, I was working 6-7 days a week, trying to catch up on everything possible. For me, the four-day week felt like someone taking the pressure off. I could finally relax a little.”

With two children aged six and 16, Mr Goman also values the additional time for family responsibilities and childcare during school holidays.

Custom Heat’s initiative aligns with growing evidence supporting the four-day week model. According to data from 4dayweek.co.uk, 56 out of 61 companies that trialed the approach continued with it afterward. These companies reported a 35% increase in revenue, 57% reduction in staff turnover, and 25% revenue growth over the previous year. Additionally, 83% found it easier to attract talent, while 66% reported reduced employee burnout.

“The construction and heating sectors are traditionally known for long hours and high-pressure environments,” added Mr Smith. “We’re proud to be pioneering a more sustainable approach that can potentially transform industry standards while maintaining service excellence. To our knowledge, we are the first heating and plumbing business in the UK to implement this model across the entire organisation, which puts us at the forefront of workplace innovation in our sector.”

Following the summer implementation, Custom Heat plans to conduct a comprehensive review to determine the viability of making the four-day summer work week a permanent fixture in their annual calendar. The company has emphasised that normal five-day operations would continue during winter months without increasing working hours to compensate for the reduced summer schedule.

Construction activity has suffered a further decline and confidence is low despite minister Angela Rayner’s planning reforms getting a thumbs up from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Rayner’s Ministry of Housing is introducing broad changes to planning rules as it hopes to deliver the UK’s construction sector an extra boost.

Its planning reforms have won the approval of the fiscal watchdog, which upgraded growth forecasts for 2026 and the years thereafter.

But optimism is yet to spread to construction firms, which have seen the fastest reduction in employment numbers in nearly five years, according to S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI).

The PMI showed that activity has seen a downturn for the third month in a row as it posted a figure of 46.4 for March, below the 50-figure benchmark that indicates an overall increase in output compared to the previous month.

Confidence across the sector also fell to its lowest level since October 2023 as the UK’s poor economic outlook has weighed down on business prospects.

Civil engineering was the weakest sub-sector as the rate of contraction was at its fastest pace since October 2020.

Economics director at S&P Global Tim Moore said construction at large was facing headwinds from delayed decisions on major projects.

“March data highlighted a challenging month for UK construction companies as sharply reduced order volumes continued to weigh on overall workloads,” Moore said.

Spiralling employment costs, exacerbated by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn national insurance tax raid, are also taking a hit on the sector.

“A lack of new projects, alongside pressure on margins from rising payroll costs, led to hiring freezes and the non-replacement of departing staff in March,” he said.

“The net result was the fastest pace of job shedding across the construction sector for nearly four-and-a-half years.”

The government is relying on the sector to help it achieve its target of building 1.5m homes in the next four years.

It has also made significant investments in national infrastructure projects central to its mission to deliver growth. But the latest data on construction will send a warning to government officials who are feeling buoyant after planning reforms have gained credibility.

Source: City AM

_{Towards greener Helsinki. Photo: Kari Ylitalo, Helsinki Partners}

The operations of the Salmisaari coal power plant ha ended.   Abolishing the use of coal is a significant milestone for Helsinki on its journey towards carbon neutrality. The closure of the power plant will reduce Helsinki’s carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent compared to the previous year, and it practically also marks the end of coal burning in Finland as a whole.

Helsinki’s climate goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, twenty years ahead of the EU’s target. Abolishing fossil fuels in energy production plays a significant role in achieving this goal. The first really major step into the green transition was taken two years ago, when the municipal energy utility Helen Ltd, a subsidiary of the City of Helsinki, shut down the Hanasaari B power plant. Now, Helsinki’s last remaining coal power plant, Salmisaari, is being relegated to the history books.

“The closing of the coal-fired energy plants is an important and historical change for Helsinki, Finland and, ultimately, the whole planet. Cities the world over have assumed a leading role in the fight against climate change. Helsinki wants to be a bold forerunner, on both a national and global level. The fact that we have been able to resolutely move forward with our plans to shut down coal-fired power plants in our city is a strong indicator of our determinedness in this area,” says Juhana Vartiainen, Mayor of Helsinki.

The closing of the Salmisaari coal power plant will reduce the City of Helsinki’s emissions by 30 percent. The abolishment of coal has happened quickly in Helsinki, as in 2022, coal still accounted for 64 percent of Helen’s district heat production. Helsinki has now closed both the Hanasaari and Salmisaari coal power plants within two years, which will reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by an impressive 43 percent. At the national level, the closing of the power plants in Helsinki will reduce the total carbon dioxide emissions of Finland by 5 percent.

Heat production to be divided among several sources

Energy production is no longer be based on fossil fuels in Helsinki. Helen’s investments in carbon-neutral production, such as Europe’s largest electric boiler plant and the world’s largest heat pump, have enabled Helen to move away from coal completely. Going forward, the Finnish capital will transition into electrified energy production based on heat pumps utilising waste and environmental heat, electric boilers, energy storage and sustainably produced bioenergy. Helen produces electricity mainly from wind, nuclear, hydro and solar power.

“With regard to the Helsinki’s direct climate emissions, we have made particularly good progress towards our goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 in terms of heating and electricity consumption. Shutting down the operations of the Salmisaari coal power plant is a really important step and a much-needed major deed. However, our determined work towards emissions reductions will not stop here, as our objective is to be net zero by 2040, and from there on we will strive towards carbon negativity,” points out Deputy Mayor Anni Sinnemäki.

Hydrogen offers new business opportunities

As electricity production becomes more diversified, one of the most talked about clean energy solutions of the future is hydrogen. Helsinki is also investing heavily in this area. One interesting pilot project for green hydrogen production is Helen’s 3H2 – Helsinki Hydrogen Hub. The goal is to start hydrogen production in a new facility in 2026. Hydrogen also offers business opportunities for international companies.

Finland’s key strengths in the hydrogen field are based on the clean, robust and cost competitive electricity system, a high-tech society with a predictable low-risk investment environment, an ample supply of clean water and biogenic CO2, and excellent opportunities for taking advantage of the side streams of hydrogen production.

Teachers can tailor the lighting to meet the needs of individual pupils with sensory sensitivities

Glamox has delivered lighting for an extraordinary renovation project in Finland, where an old military barracks has been transformed into a modern learning facility for children with sensory sensitivities.

The Valteri Centre for Learning and Consulting provides services for children and young people who need support in their education. In September 2024, Valteri opened a renovated school for lower and upper elementary school students in Oulu, Finland, where the lighting can be tailored to meet the needs of individual students.

Glamox, a world leader in lighting, has delivered more than 1,000 LED fixtures to the school, which is equipped with double the number of luminaries of a regular school.

The renovation was undertaken by Senate Properties, with electrical contractor Sweco responsible for the electrical design and lighting design for the project. Both the building and the light installations cater to students with visual, hearing, attention, and mobility impairments.

Lighting in the corridors involves luminaires which work together to provide a uniform light distribution, with a light source that is not visible. Harsh lighting, which can flicker and hum, can distract and even be painful to students with autism, resulting in increased anxiety and irritability.

“Our main starting point was to design a supportive and good learning environment for students. The design of the spaces emphasised accessibility for all senses,” says Riina Kittilä, lighting designer at Sweco.

To achieve this goal, classroom spaces have been shaped to add ample light to the teacher’s face so that students can read facial expressions. It was also important to avoid high-contrast areas on the walls and to use uniform illumination without light and dark areas in the same space. Specifically, the chosen light fixtures avoid strong surface brightness that causes glare.

“We chose Glamox as a supplier because its products meet our strict technological requirements and include tunable, white lights. Another advantage is that the product family can be installed in various ways, which is more cost efficient,” notes Kittilä.

“Every classroom has lighting that can be adjusted individually for the students. The teacher can adjust the light intensity and colour temperature on a fixture-by-fixture basis in the classroom. In that way, the teacher can increase the light with a cooler colour temperature to raise alertness or use warm and dim lighting to calm the mood in the classroom,” Kittilä explains.

Glamox is proud to have contributed to this unique project and hopes that others will be inspired by the tailor-made learning conditions at the Valteri School in Oulu.

“We have amassed years of experience providing Human Centric Lighting that can help improve learning environments and we understand the psychological and biological impact of light on pupil performance. I can’t think of a project where those factors are more important, and this school project raises the bar in creating lighting conditions suited to the needs of individual students,” says Simo Kari, Sales Director at Glamox Oy Finland.

 Images credit: Photo: Marko Kallio, Skyfox

£350 billion shot in UK economy’s arm on the table with oil & gas and other homegrown energy

With forecasts indicating that the United Kingdom (UK) will need billions of oil and gas barrels by 2050 amidst the ongoing economic challenges and energy market headwinds and tailwinds, Britain’s trade body for the offshore energy industry, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), has outlined in its new report the roadmap that will enable Britain not only to meet the power demand with energy produced at home but also inject hundreds of billions into its economy by allowing oil and gas to thrive alongside low-carbon and clean alternatives in its energy toolbox.

Offshore Energies UK’s ‘2025 Business Outlook’ report spotlights the path the UK is being urged to take to unlock energy reserves, which could curtail its dependence on imports and boost economic growth. OEUK claims that the UK could produce at home half of the 13-15 billion barrels of oil and gas the nation is projected to need by 2050 under the right business conditions.

According to Britain’s trade body, such a move would add up to £150 billion of gross value to the UK economy on top of the £200 billion from planned production, resulting in around £350 billion in total to safeguard energy security, jobs and lower carbon emissions alongside an acceleration of renewables.

OEUK’s report comes after the independent Climate Change Committee estimates, which indicate the UK will require 13-15 billion barrels of oil and gas by 2050, the target date for the economy to achieve net zero. While Britain is on track to produce 4 billion of these barrels, the report finds that another 3 billion barrels could be produced at home to meet half of the UK’s needs with the right polices to encourage firms to invest, rather than increasing its reliance on imports.

Furthermore, the report’s findings indicate that by 2050, when UK electricity demand has more than doubled, oil and gas will still form a fifth of UK energy needs. As a result, the cost of energy is seen as critical to wider industrial strategy and economic success. With this in mind, OEUK concludes that maintaining homegrown gas supplies is key for the UK’s industrial base.

This business outlook coincides with government consultations with the industry on the future of the North Sea and the oil and gas fiscal regime. In the coming months, the trade body notes that interlinked decisions are also expected on the UK government’s Comprehensive Spending Review and new Industrial Strategy, as well as updated environmental guidelines for oil and gas projects.

Source: Off-Shore Energy