Times are hard out there...Really?

Jimmy_31

ILW wrote: »

Oddly enough, British gas charge about £2500 to replace a boiler, the cost of the boiler is around £800 retail and the fitting takes less than a day. They do a lot of them. There should be a pretty big opportunity to undercut that by a mile (say £1500 or less all in). Why am I not being flooded with leaflets from out of work gas registered plumbers offering it?

It wont be long till you are, now that the housing associations are stopping lots of work and also cutting wages for the work that is still available.

Plumbers and sparks are always the last to be hit, they do the work that has to be done, not like joiners, brickies, painters , the work they do can always be put off because it will be alright for another year till the next cash comes in.

Cleaver

ILW wrote: »

Why am I not being flooded with leaflets from out of work gas registered plumbers offering it?

Because they're out of work?

Thrugelmir

EdgEy wrote: »

we have store fronts closed (even in the city centre I'd say 10-20% of buildings stand completely empty),

National average is around 14%. The retail trade through the internet is expected to continue to grow at the expense of the traditional high street. Too much floor space selling the same products.

Cleaver

iandury wrote: »

In the last 10 days though i have been lucky enough to doing a little business/pleasure in West London and have been staying at a great place off the Strand. I must say if their is a shortage of money it does not show anywhere around here, there seems to be a lot of flush people around. Then this weekend i have been staying at a friends holiday home on the Norfolk coast, again, full pubs and restaurants, plenty of money flying about.

I see very little of the old image of desperate men with head in hands in dire straits. in really seems to be business as usual for most but just everyone being a little bit more sensible.

Is this picture right?

If you're going to paint an accurate picture of the financial health of the UK could I humbly suggest that picking one of the most expensive streets in the country and a posh second home region might not be the best decision?

This is a bit like me going to a Megadeth concert, conducting a survey and coming to the conclusion that the British public enjoy a bit of thrash metal much more than we first thought.

ILW

Cleaver wrote: »

Because they're out of work?

Plenty of time for dropping leaflets then.

PasturesNew

iandury wrote: »

have been staying at a great place off the Strand. I must say if their is a shortage of money it does not show anywhere around here, there seems to be a lot of flush people around. Then this weekend i have been staying at a friends holiday home on the Norfolk coast, again, full pubs and restaurants, plenty of money flying about.

The people without money won't be in posh hotels, so you won't see them.
The people without money won't be in pubs/restaurants, so you won't see them.

PasturesNew

ninky wrote: »

what could / can be done with the north of england?

bbc are moving departments there but i have my doubts over how successful that will be. as a freelance media type i still find the north hugely unappealing - and in this day and age it's the freelancers you have to convince to move as well as the safe staff jobs. i might get a six month contract up there but then what? in london there are loads of companies i can work for. and that's before i even get into the relative merits / appeal of living in london over living in salford.

the countryside up there could be a tourist draw if they actually invested in more wilderness creation. the weather isn't going to sell it but green spaces could if they weren't so deforested.

I'm sure there are plenty of local freelancers who could do the work. It isn't about you, it's about spreading the BBC jobs around a bit - to give other areas a chance for people to find work.

There must also be loads of freelancers in London who originated from the north, have made their money and were looking at taking things a bit easier that'd love the chance of moving home and landing some work with the BBC.

dopester

ILW wrote: »

Oddly enough, British gas charge about £2500 to replace a boiler, the cost of the boiler is around £800 retail and the fitting takes less than a day. They do a lot of them. There should be a pretty big opportunity to undercut that by a mile (say £1500 or less all in). Why am I not being flooded with leaflets from out of work gas registered plumbers offering it?

From £1,995 with a £100 cash back for old boiler + a free year's insurance supposedly worth £156, but I wouldn't be happy if it broke down in first year. I wouldn't want their entry level one either, and would have to do my research to how reliable British Gas branded boilers are.

Also, from the leaflet: No, it's not a printing error. We've cut £1,000 off the average price of a boiler and standard installation since 2008, giving you the same quality and service for less.

Oh the inflation!





I've got loads of spare parts for our family home old boiler anyway, which should keep on doing its thing for plenty more years. Loads of great ebay deals on parts, with many people having been trading in their good boilers for new ones, and brand new spares also falling heavily in price. My guess is the efficiency saving is only about £150 a year for our old boiler (70% efficiency) against latest efficient boiler of around 90%.

In the local paper of a town nearby, quite a few deals for boilers inc fitting from £1200 but who knows what brand and model of boiler for that. 2 GasSafe engineers I know are doing pretty well, possibly because they have really good reputations, and they are very busy, but they know it's tough out there for increasing numbers of people. Electricians however seem to have it a lot tougher.

dopester

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm sure there are plenty of local freelancers who could do the work. It isn't about you, it's about spreading the BBC jobs around a bit - to give other areas a chance for people to find work.

There must also be loads of freelancers in London who originated from the north, have made their money and were looking at taking things a bit easier that'd love the chance of moving home and landing some work with the BBC.

Tough times are coming for many a BBC staff employee imo - not as bad as other sectors, but not this lush easy land of good jobs and good money and solid employment prospects many people think it is at the BBC. Wasted so much money on fancy sites. MI5 had to halt construction of BBC's new (super expensive) London site, for they had not been consulted at the planning stage with MI5 having "security requirements" of their own to do with the structure which BBC needed to indulge.

Then Media City, then that fancy expensive new BBC centre up in Scotland. Anyway I know a person who had to get rid of loads of staff from his department in the time of John Birt in 91/92/93 with people in shock at losing their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised to see another big shakeup coming. What's going to happen to BBC Oxford Road? Just going to sit empty or keep it on with Salford Media City. Totally the wrong strategy BBC have pursued during the boom. Should have been downsizing not upsizing with lots of new property sites.

diable

Maybe now the can knock down the BBC centre and put the speedway track back in place................