I must admit, I had to check my website statistics a few times to make sure it was reporting properly, but I’m pleased to say that there has officially been a lot of interest in the window scrappage scheme.
I’m not sure why but in the last few days there have been a lot of people searching for information about the window scrappage scheme, and clicking on my website:
I assume the GGF must have been doing some type of promotion I’m unaware of for RCG to get so much traffic in the last couple of days. Let’s hope that this interest is maintained and that more people sign the petition at:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/windowscrappage/
Tags: GGF, grants for windows, national window scrappage scheme, window scrappage
Hi Trying looking at the Anglian website. Might give a clue to raise interest as also backed my TV and Radio promotion.
Hi RGC
The list of names on the Number 10 petition reads like a whos who in Anglian. The GGF need Anglians’ business and are trying to help them out by getting the Industry behind it. (Its beginning to work).
The scheme will never get off the ground thank God, unless of course the uPVC was made in Korea!
I for one am not in favour of the Scheme. It would give the likes of Anglian a way out of their troubles with what would be public money, and the general public would not stomach it.
That old dinosaur needs to pass away quietly and helping them through their present troubles with a Treasury hand out would not help the new breed of dynamic people who have come into the business and changed it for the good, you included Matthew and lots of other posters here.
Quick tip for Anglian on how to sell more windows & doors – Stop telling people the list price on a set of french doors is £3.6k (excluding the £200 admin fee) Its hurting our industry, and its not fair on their ‘Victims’, sorry, customers.
IMHO
Regards
Alex
Disclaimer: The price of your windows can go up as well as down and down and down. E&OE
Hi RCG
I should have read Richards comment above before posting.
Anglian now claim there is a ‘National Window Scrappage Scheme’
Surely this is misleading?, it simply is not true.
More Victims?
Alex
Hi Alex
Thanks for your comments, but I think the window scrappage scheme would benefit the whole industry, if the Government were to consider it.
As for Anglian using it a marketing tactic: seems like clever marketing to me. Why didn’t I think of that?
RCG
Surely if Anglian push it, anyone getting more than one quote will find they can get the scheme with anyone anyway. Anglians marketing would do everyone good.
The objective of the petition is to generate enough signatures to take it to government and open up debate on the idea.
Sadly though, with the tarnished reputation our industry suffers from. I cannot see too much enthusiasm from civil servants towards our aim … albeit a win/win situation for them in terms of revenues and indeed the environmental plus points… as highlighted in previous posts.
Having said that, the Government did help out the motor trade … ”know what I mean guv … nudge nudge wink wink …”
I’m confused, I thought that the scrappage scheme had started?
We are moving into an old property where the windows are rotting & need replacing & this sounded like a good idea. We saw some adverts on the TV.
I’m now under the impression after reading the comments that it isn’t even going ahead yet.
Does someone know what is ACTUALLY happening?
Hi Emma
The real Window Scrappage Scheme has been proposed to the Government through a petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website, but as yet there is no official scheme unless Government policy changes.
You obviously saw a TV advert from Anglian who have created their own marketing campaign on this subject.
RCG
Alex
regarding your comment, “It would give the likes of Anglian a way out of their troubles” are Anglian in Trouble??
RCG (and Richard),
I feel I must respond. I am not sure who Alex is but I can assure you that Anglian is not in trouble, far from it. Alex seems to have a different agenda and uses unfounded and incorrect information. I am not sure where his comment on Korea comes from but our product is proudly made in Norwich.
The window scrappage campaign is a genuine opportunity to push the industry forward. The government, if serious about climate change, needs to provide an industry wide scrappage scheme and also reduce VAT on professionally installed energy efficient windows. Why is it 5% VAT on cavity and roof insulation yet the Government intend on raising VAT back to the 17.5% rate for windows? We at Anglian support the GGF petition wholeheartedly and await the response from Gordon Brown.
Yes, at Anglian, we have a vested interest in pushing this campaign forward, but isn’t it our duty as market leader to show the way?
Martin Troughton
Marketing Director
Anglian Home Improvements
[...] “Hi Emma, The real Window Scrappage Scheme has been proposed to the Government through a petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website, but as yet there is no official scheme unless Government policy changes. You obviously saw a TV advert from Anglian who have created their own marketing campaign on this subject.” (Renegade Conservatory Guy) [...]
Slightly off topic, I know but I noticed that 0.3% of visits came from people searching for “Rubbish Websites”!!!!!
I did a quick search for this term and saw that you did an article of rubbish double glazing websites. How crappy that google decided to rank you as relevant for “Rubbish Websites”!?
Crappy, but funny none the less
Jay – I also get a few clicks every month for ‘guys in lycra’. It’s a strange world.
Window scrappage scheme was mentioned in the Telegraph last weekend
Thanks for the info. Had a mail shot leaflet from Anglian advertising ‘The UK’s first window scrappage scheme’ and ‘£2,000 National Window Scrappage Scheme’.
Very misleading until p3 reads that [it] ‘.. is just one of the initiatives we have introduced to make it easier for homeowners like you to ‘green’ your home. . . . we fully endorse the petition for a Government endorsed Window Scrappage Scheme.’
And then in the very very small print at the bottom of p3 it reads ‘ Minimum order values apply. Scrappage value and discount relevant to order value – see internet for full details.’ Which I did and here I am.
Good marketing ploy Anglian. Pays to read the small print guys!
For those reading the threads about the ‘window scrappage scheme’ there’s more recent information at:
http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/anglian-follows-everest-with-window-scrappage-scheme/
Hi.
So has the govenment approved of this £2000 window scrappage scheme, as I saw another company on the internet, claiming the government are backing the £1000 window scrappage, yes £1000 this time.
Would it not be cheaper just to go down to wickes (If your windows are of a decent size ) and buy and fit them yourselves. or is replacing your own windows at your own time against the law?
thanks
Hi ,
No there are no government backed schemes at present just a pertition that has gone in requesting this. Alot of companies are just trying to con people into thinking there is. If you actually read the wording on there adds it mentions nothing about it being government backed, it just says things like “National Scrappage Scheme” because Anglian are a National company and if you read there literature CLOSELY it says the Anglian National Scrappage Scheme, the Devil is in the detail as they say.
You would need to get building regs approval to fit your own windows and the cheapest way to do it would be to go to the Salvage companies and buy a semi decent window that has come out, probably replace the glass in it to todays standard and pay for a fitter to fit it correctly (as there no fun in doing something yourself especially when you’ll have to get rid of the old window as well) whilst following all the current ventilation regulations and fire escapes and by the time you’ve done all that you’ll find out that you can get a bespoke window bought fitted with a FENSA registered company for less money.
Replacement windows if you go to the right companies and there are many of us that do do good jobs need not cost the earth. Have a quote from a nice local family run company and you don’t get all the stupidly high costs to start with.
The reason is simple. Anglian’s TV advert implies that the scrappage scheme is a Government initiative ,similar to the car scrappage scheme, because it is described as a ‘National’ window scrappage scheme.
That gets folk like me curious. “I haven’t heard about that,” says I. So we have a look.
When we see that it’s only an industry promtion, we go away muttering, “Another double glazing con.”
You guys don’t exactly have a reputation for honesty and fair trading, do you?
There is a wider issue that no-one is picking up on. To get the UK’s CO2 emissions down, the onus is going to fall on the householder, not road traffic (how dare anyone interfere with our right to wheels!), not air travel (I WANT my annual holiday!), not industry (UK has to be competitive, unlimited growth, city bonuses).
99.9% of UK housing stock is already built, and to the lowest standards the building industry can get away with. Even new houses are poorly designed (poor detailing on insulation/airtightness, no microrenewables, poor design re solar gain, too many ensuites, no easily accessible central services, no peripheral cool food storage).
Faced with accelerating CO2 emissions, and genuinely scared of what climate change may bring, the government/insurance industry/media have promoted micro-renewable energy generation without realising that 1) they are of no use unless the house is thoroughly insulated, and 2) because sun, wind etc do not generate electricity/heat at convenient times, hence the power source must be linked to the grid, and the householder paid (meter driven in reverse) at a rate to make it worthwhile.
But first, to retrofit insulation, and install most micro-renewables is destructive and very expensive. To rub salt in, and this is my main point, YOU PAY 15% TAX (SOON TO BE 20%) ON YOUR BUILDERS TIME, ON THE INSULATING MATERIALS, ON EXCAVATING, PIPEWORK AND EVERYTHING REQUIRED TO GET YOUR HOUSE BACK TO NORMAL!
For most people, if your job and life are uncertain, if you may move house, then the disruption and expense are not worthwhile. The payback time of most microrenewable equipment, alone, is measured in decades.
We have to insulate below solid and suspended timber floors, take up and insulate under flat roof, relocate and replace oil boiler with biomass boiler, and apart from a grant for the boiler, we have to pay (2010 onwards) 20% tax to HMRC. on all labour and costs – where is the logic in that, and should we bother?
It’s illuminating that most MPs expenses claims were for tarty makeovers rather that, say for dry lining their entire house and installing a ground-source heat pump! Shows how much they understand the problem of retro-insulating the UK’s housing stock!
This window scrappage idea is just one small part of an impasse we are all in. What next for scrappage? In logical order of emissions/heat loss we should then have a roof scrappage scheme, then walls, doors, floors, boilers … Firstly, building materials related to energy conservation must be zero-VAT rated.
Dear sir’s the whole system is back to front where the TAX payer is paying for energy conservation then Taxing VAT at (15% soon to be 17.5 % or even 20%) thous who are trying to do something about it is ridiculous. I produced a long reply to this but it got lost and I do not have the time to do it again. I am a retired M & E Engineer- Energy Conservation Officer who has considerable experience of a lot of so called energy saving devices that claim to be cost effective and have a repayment period. The only one that I could verify would have to be the “Optimizer” placed on the heating boiler out put to the space giving optimum control over the heat input to the space during occupation by self correcting for pre heating time and shut off time prior to vacating the building. The value and effectiveness of the device is set against any number of independent variables not least a full set of data prior to installation to include building usage (Doors opening to the outside) it’s requirement’s of humidity Rh. it’s losses or decay time in relation to it’s proven insulation values of “U” sap, external exposure to wind and triennial down wash. The number of “COLD” radiators on the building i.e. window’s. When I see and here the rubbish that is being produced today I could be tempted to come out of retirement and try and mack a difference. Alas I despair with the appointment of highly paid quangos who have not got a clue. ire. The recycling quangos head in London at over £300,000 a year, plus a department that is costing the TAX payer several Million a year and for what? Doing the obvious in the most cost effective way. The quangos appointed for the ridiculous Health and Safety department that has grown into a monster that is strangling us. All I speak to, say the same thing the “DAMED HSE ARE KILLING AND STOPPING EVERYTHING” We the British public need to stand up and say no to this monster that is blighting all of the UK. Regerds Mike R Davies-Bidgood Retired M & E Eng. Energy Consrvation Engineer.
I am so concerned about this, both re the environmental consequences and the impact on our historic buildings. If the industry was genuinely interested in the environment, they would be advising people to retain and adapt existing wooden windows or replace them with double glazed versions of the same. I suspect that in reality, this is a shallow attempt yo schieve more sales, resulting in many needless replacements with uPVC which is arguably more harmful for the environmenta (less sustainable source and more difficult to recycle). There are also valid concerns regarding the impact of such replacement on our heritage, with less informed owners and double glazing sales people failing to appreciate appropriate styling for replacement windows.
Often the appropriate styling for replacement windows is not available to match the originals due to the Regs requiring double glazing. If your house was “wrecked” in the ’50s for example with windows of inappropriate size and style,there is now no way you can replicate the dainty frames and small glazing bars to match your neighbours.