At last, there's a government-organised scheme which is going to benefit some builders merchants - two schemes actually.

So, according to the Government and the car industry, the cash-for-old-bangers' saw more than 15,000 people buying a new car as a direct result.

At the risk of repeating myself from last week, it looks as though the idea of the scrappage scheme has caught the imagination.

Health and Safety. It gets everywhere. Even children's TV programmes. There was a Health and Safety inspection at the racetrack on Roary the Racing Car this morning and, although everyone passed in the end, it was touch and go for some of them.

According to research released yesterday by the Energy Saving Trust, a third of Britons would be willing to pay more for a home where some of the energy supply came from renewable resources such as wind, solar or hydropower.

After the initial euphoria and excitement which I'm afraid I always get when I see someone I know on the telly, it struck me that the BBC TV programme in which PTS md Alan Ball appeared promoting the Boiler Scrappage Scheme fell prey to the blindness that seems to hit just about every part of…

It seems as though the question of whether we are coming out of recession has just been answered. Certainly in terms of the merchant sector, the recovery that has been mooted in the press in the last weeks is still a long way away. Wolseley sustained a £766m pre-tax loss in the last financial year;…

Britain was once described as a 'nation of shopkeepers'. Now that nice Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps, wants to turn it into a nation of housebuilders.

Staff retention. Not exactly a priority for most companies in the building industry at the moment. Most are more worried about how they can get rid of people legally and still keep the business going.

So the Climate Change Committee says current energy efficiency policies for domestic sector are not enough for the government to reach its own targets on emission reductions under the Climate Change Act.