Thursday 21 January 2016

New NIA Quality Assurance Frameworks will help restore confidence & clearly differentiate its members

In July 2015 the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd, announced the Bonfield Review, an independent review into quality standards and consumer protection for energy efficiency measures.  Since the start of the review the National Insulation Association (NIA) has been directly involved in the work taking place.

The NIA and its registered members are committed to quality and standards and as part of its work under the Bonfield Review it has initiated the development of new quality assurance frameworks that will apply to its registered members installing external wall, internal wall, cavity wall, loft insulation and draught-proofing.  The frameworks will include robust criteria for member companies and a range of standards covering the building survey, system design, installation, after care and maintenance. They will set the quality bar for insulation companies and clearly differentiate its registered members from non-members.

Neil Marshall, Chief Executive of the NIA commented: “We are committed to leading the quality agenda and this is demonstrated through our current criteria and standards and the enhanced QA Frameworks we are now developing.  We would therefore urge consumers and specifiers including Local Authorities, Housing Associations and Procurement Framework Operators to use our members to carry out any insulation work.  In addition, we would urge installers who share our values to join us now so that they can be part of the frameworks and will not be excluded from tenders and specifications going forward.

“The NIA also runs an ‘expressions of interest and tender request’ service.  Through this free service we issue requests to our registered members on behalf of LA’s, HA’s, other specifiers and project managers which provides them with the benefit of avoiding the need to contact lots of different companies and is immediate,  saving time and money.”

Details of the expressions of interest service and NIA Membership can be found on the NIA website www.nia-uk.org  or email Neil.Marshall@nia-uk.org 

Monday 11 January 2016

Our response to Government proposals to improve 100 housing estates in England.

Speaking to the BBC over the weekend, Prime Minister David Cameron said that Government is to spend £140m, with added money from the private sector, to demolish existing housing estates and rebuild homes that people feel they can have a real future in.

Commenting on the proposals, Neil Marshall, CEO of the National Insulation Association (NIA) said: “Whilst we support the Prime Minister’s proposals to improve housing estates in England we are concerned that the plans appear to focus purely on demolition and rebuilding.  Housing estates can be regenerated and transformed by upgrading the existing properties including the installation of attractive external wall insulation.  The cost of upgrading estates is significantly less than demolition and rebuilding which means more households could be helped with the money.  In addition, upgrading the existing buildings avoids the hassle and disruption of having to re-house the occupants which is associated with demolition and rebuilding.

“We would therefore urge the Prime Minister to reconsider the proposals and focus more of the investment on upgrading existing properties.”