Budget Day

We've now had the last budget before the election and there was no direct mention of any help to our industry once again. Though we didn't expect any did we?! The Chancellor did however talk about the funding for the green technologies market. Hopefully some of the new new funding will increase interest in the greener advantages of the PVCu window industry.

Other plus points was the staggered introduction of an extra 3p per litre on fuel. This is now going to go up by 1p on the 1st April, 1p on the 1st October and the other in the New Year. Obviously any increase in fuel is going to hit hauliers and transport departments of all businesses hard. But this is arguably a better way to do it rather than one big hit immediately.

What does annoy me slightly is the inability for the opposition parties to come up with alternative ideas that they think will be better for the economy than what has been announced and debated. All the opposition seem to be able to do is to shout and rant about how bad everything is but not give any indication as to what they would do differently. At this moment in time my vote is going to Labour. I'm not saying they have been perfect, far from it. But to me their measures seem more sensible than the Tories' 'cut cut cut' strategy. The last thing this industry needs is to be plunged back into recession due to premature spending cuts. However, if the other parties pull their finger out and give me a substabtial reason to vote for them, I'm open to reconsideration.

That's my political broadcast out of the way. We've finished the first draft of our trade price list. It's been a while in coming but the initial draft is now complete and ready to have the finishing touches made to it. We decided a while ago that along with the many cheap and cheerful builders out there looking for very basic, poor quality windows and doors, there are others out there that look for a quality window or door to finish of their high quality workmanship. We understand that builders always want to make a good impression when they finish off a job. And all too often we hear from customers that when they had their extension built they were unhappy with the quality of the windows and doors the builder chose to install. This is all down to the builder wanting to make as much money as possible, while sacrificing the quality of some of the most important items of the extension. We are going to be aiming at the higher end of the market. Aiming at the builders who don't just think of their back pockets, but of quality, security, energy efficiency and overall customer satisfaction.