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The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) is demanding that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, decides what he wants from the house building industry - affordable housing or tax revenue – as part of the planned review of building low cost homes in the countryside.   

Brian Berry, FMB Director of External Affairs, says

“The Government position is quite clearly that they want to have their cake and eat it. On the one hand they point the finger at the building industry and demand more affordable housing, and with the other it lays down rules and imposes taxes which make houses more and more expensive to build. Brown needs to stop having reviews, and start making decisions!  Quite simply, does the Prime Minister want the tax revenues or does he want affordable housing?”

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Wikipedia, the largest online community driven encyclopaedia, celebrated this week after its 10 millionth article was posted at the weekend. The article in question was a biography of a 16th century English goldsmith and painter called Nicholas Hilliard. The article was by a user named Pataki Marta.

But before you click to have a look at the entry, it might want to know first that it exists in the Hungarian annex of Wikipedia. This of course shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Wikipedia fans. While English is the number one language on the site, others have quickly grown to nip at its heels. Some of the other big languages include German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese are also said to be experiencing rapid growth.

Despite the site’s numerous critics for accuracy, it is obvious that people love the idea of such a resource being out there for them to access so freely and contribute so easily and openly. Can Wikipedia now double its count? We’ll just have to wait and see.

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A wide range of respiratory disorders are associated with dampness in the air, as high humidity creates ideal breeding conditions for house mites. Asthma is now thought to affect 1 in 4 children and dampness has been linked to headache and rheumatic pains.

To combat the problem many homeowners reach for the thermostat and crank up the heating, but Micromark warn that this will only exacerbate the problem.

Micromark recommends its dehumidifiers as a way of combating the problem. Dehumidifiers remove moisture which would otherwise be trapped in the air before condensing on cold surfaces, such as windows and walls. So they can effectively control dampness and condensation in the home – the latest Micromark unit is a thirsty piece of kit, and can extract up to 20 litres of moisture per day.

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There has been a lot of talk of the ‘credit crunch’and the knock-on effects for business and consumers. Share prices have dipped, and banks have tightened their lending criteria. What might this mean for tradesmen over the coming weeks and months?  ProblemSolved has been examining the potential impact on your business.

In a recent survey, the Federation of Master Builders found that 40% of its members have reported a slowdown in the rate of enquiries, whilst Travis Perkins recently admitted to the Guardian that the home improvement market is slowing.

However, this may not tell the whole story. Tim Foley, MD of Kitchens Fitted Ltd points out “Businesses who are offering quality products at competitive prices will be best equipped to cope. The sociological result of the credit crunch will be that people will invest in their homes rather than sell them. In times of crisis, the home becomes a castle.”

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More and more homeowners are coming to the site for advice and opinion on all things to do with the home. If you’re passionate about your work, and you fancy yourself as a bit of a writer, why not become a guest blogger on our site. You can write about areas of interest and give members of the public useful advice on how to look after their home. Think of it as your very own ‘column.’

The benefits include:

• Increased presence throughout the site
• A chance to be seen as an expert in your field
• Enquiries by association. When people read your blog, they’ll be more likely to approach you for work.

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Matt James, famous for his appearances in Channel Four's 'The City Gardener', is the latest celebrity to be confirmed as a speaker at this year’s Grand Designs Live London.

Matt who has been described at a "genuine, 21st-century tree hugger", has become a recognisable face in modern gardening. He will be appearing at Grand Seminars Theatre, sponsored by the Electrical Safety Council, on Monday 5th May and will be speaking about gardening in small places.

Matt is the latest addition to an list of confirmed speakers which includes Diarmuid Gavin, Jason Bradbury, Naomi Cleaver, and design guru, Kevin McCloud.

A Private Investigator firm has discovered that more than three quarters of workers have stolen from their current or previous places of work. The figures show that potentially over £432m of company goods, including laptops, confidential personal data, TVs, and even an office pet in one case are stolen in the UK each year.

A recent study commissioned by salgadoinvestigations.com found that 78% have stolen from their place of work at some point in their lives. This means that with individuals admitting to stealing, on average, more than £920 worth of items throughout their careers, theft at work costs the economy nearly £432m each year.

Raiders of stationary cupboards in offices up and down the land were not included in the results, as the study only mentioned theft of high value items.

If you’ve seen your energy bills heat up recently, a bright idea might be to shift your account online. A recent poll on moneysupermarket.com revealed that the majority of consumers believe they are paying too much for their gas and electricity, and that recent price increases were totally unjustified.

Five of the big six energy firms - British Gas, EDF Energy, Eon, Npower and Scottish Power - have increased their gas and electricity prices by an average of 15% since the beginning of the year. The typical household now pays more than £1,000 a year for energy - up from around £650 three years ago.

What should you do?
The message is simple - move to the best deal you can. Despite the recent price increases, there are still significant savings to be made.

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Property website Rightmove has announced that asking prices in the UK have risen by an average of £2000, sparking fears of "stagnation" in the market place. As more and more sale boards go up, so too are expectations of what a property is worth, as vendors hang on to the values touted during the heady peaks of the summer of 2007. But in property's winter of discontent, sale prices have fallen and continue to fall - so for anyone looking to sell, it's time to wake up. Listen to your neighbours, not your estate agent - properties can only sell for what people are prepared or, more importantly, can afford to pay for them.

Unless you've been in a coma for the past 18 months, you'll have noticed that the property market is quite the talk of the town. And whilst much of the talk is repossessions and remortgaging, the Telegraph is reminding us of how the other half lives with a well timed tonic for the economic malaise. Its "Property Lingo" is an A-Z of all you need to know to pass yourself off as one of the "ubra-rich" - perfect for anyone strapped for an ice breaker with the bailiffs.

Don't know your flaunching from your purlins? Click here for the ProblemSolved Jargon Buster.

Rising energy prices, mortgage premiums on the up and inflation creeping up to 2.5%. Homeowners are counting the pennies and rightly so. But for all the talk of cutting back, there has never been a better time to sit tight and invest in your home - assuming you know where to find the best deals.

And there are few people better placed than local builders - who know the merchants by name and get the mates rates that we don't - a fact not lost on Wickes - the leading supplier to the trade. Click here to view the latest VODcast from Wickes.

Alison Cork is never short of an opinion when it comes to property so it's little surprise that the budget has not passed without comment from the ProblemSolved founder. And according to Alison, saving is the new spending for anyone aiming to dabble in the property market in 2008. Click here to read the complete article.

As if things weren't hard enough for first time buyers, experts are reporting that lenders are tightening their criteria making it harder than ever to get a mortgage. Lauren Thompson reports in today's Times that after the 125% mortgage became extinct in February, many lenders are taking 100% loan-to-value (LTV) options off the table. The bottom line is that anyone hoping to get on to the property ladder needs to scrape together a hefty deposit to get past security at the mortgage brokers.

What's more, many mortgage companies are structuring mortgages differently - focusing less on future earnings and more on the size of the deposit. A two year fixed-rate mortgage at Nationwide is available at 5.72% where the deposit represents 25% of the property's value, whilst anyone paying a 5% deposit will be stung for 6.32%.

So when it comes to the credit crunch, cash is king. And with such uncertainty shrouding the economy, lenders are focused more on bank statements than statements of intent. The net result is bad news for first time buyers in the short term - but with a sunnier outlook for the future. With property prices predicted to fall as much as 20% in the next 18 months and interest rate cuts on the horizon, it's time to hold your position and hold on to your savings.

The front page of today’s Metro certainly reads for grim reading, claiming that Britain is set to face a housing crash worse than in the US.

The well respected financial forecaster Capital Economics claims that the parallels between consumers spending in the two countries are “disturbing”. British homeowners are calculated as having larger household debts compared to their cousins over the Atlantic. There are also stronger links between house prices and consumer spending in Britain than in the US, suggesting that our economy is at greater risk.

It is predicted that whilst US spending growth is likely to recover next year, in the UK it is set to slow down further. This is despite the fact that UK consumer spending is expected to rise by 1.5 per cent in real terms this year, a figure higher than in the US. It looks like it may be time for the people who have long predicted that the British house price boom would come to an end, to say “I told you so”.

At a recent industry event, the BEAMA has joined forces with the EDA (Electrical Distributors Association), ECA (Electrical Contractors Association) and SELECT (Scotland’s trade association for the electrical, electronics and communications systems industry) to create a charter in the fight to combat the ‘trade’ in counterfeits, and the proliferation of products failing to comply with the appropriate standards.

What this charter will actually achieve in the short term remains to be seen, but it seems to be a step in the right direction for future positive action from the associated trade bodies.

www.counterfeit-kills.com highlights the seriousness of inferior quality, counterfeit electrical products – mainly from China - entering the UK and Europe. It features advice for electrical distributors, contractors, manufacturers and specifiers to take and also includes the charter.