Tag: communications

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Press release: Helping small businesses to control their energy costs

  • £8.8 million distributed among 9 UK-based competition winners and an evaluation project
  • ideas aimed at helping hospitality, retail and education sectors to take control of their energy use through the use of smart meters
  • smart systems could save Great Britain up to £40 billion in the coming decades

Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) across the hospitality and retail sectors like high street cafés, restaurants and shops, as well as schools and colleges are set to benefit from new, innovative ideas aimed at reducing their energy use.

Together these sectors use the same amount of energy as 4.3 million homes, but through more efficient practice this number could be cut by more than 1 million. Funding of £8.8 million has been awarded to help develop and evaluate technologies that will help these sectors take control of their energy use through the use of smart meters, as part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

The innovative smart technologies of an upgraded energy grid, like electronic household devices and thermostats you can control from a mobile phone, can help the country save up to £40 billion on energy costs over decades to come and smart meters will be central to this revolution.

The UK based competition winners, ranging from small energy management companies to tech giants Samsung and Toshiba, have designed smart information systems that give businesses real-time, tailored data on their energy use, helping them save money by being more efficient.

The benefits range from highlighting spikes in energy use in real-time and recommending ways to cut use in the long-term, to identifying faulty equipment or inefficient ways of working.

Over 11 million smart meters are in operation in homes and small businesses around Great Britain, helping consumers take control of their energy use and bring down their bills. Despite this, there is currently a lack of products specifically aimed at small and medium-sized businesses to help them to use their smart meters to take control of their energy consumption. Competition winners have been granted funds to develop such products.

Minister for Energy and Clean Growth Claire Perry said:

The scale of the ambition displayed by the winning projects demonstrates that the UK is ready to lead the world when it comes to helping smaller businesses understand their energy use through smart systems.

Energy costs for businesses can be one of the hardest things to understand and control, but these projects can change that, as well as help educate the next generation in our schools on the importance of controlling our energy consumption.

Smart meters are an opportunity for us to rewrite the rules on how we engage with the energy market and these winners will ensure that the benefits can be felt by businesses and schools as well as homes.

Case studies

Case study 1

RAE2, an energy management system will acquire data from Smart / Advanced Meters and undertake complex analytics in order to create a visual representation of energy usage for the business or site. As a result of this analysis, the system will be able to:

  • create energy strategies aligned to business needs
  • set energy budgets for individual machines or individual operational activities
  • monitor energy usage in near real-time and schedule workloads accordingly
  • rectify operational and operator behavioural issues quickly
  • identify potentially faulty machines or operational issues

Case study 2

Considerate Hoteliers is developing an energy management app for the SME hospitality market to drive savings in energy and thus cost and carbon emissions across the sector. The app will provide users with information they can act on immediately to minimise operational inefficiencies and reduce energy consumption and associated costs allowing them to see:

  • daily energy performance trends correlated to room nights and/or food covers
  • trends in utility costs
  • quick wins – recommendations on how to save energy
  • opportunity to record implemented actions and track impact
  • alerts of spikes in consumption – allowing for real time action

Notes to editors

The 9 competition winners are:

  • ANDtr (AND Technology Research)
  • Considerate Hoteliers
  • Element Energy
  • Hildebrand
  • Hoare Lea
  • Pilio
  • Samsung
  • Toshiba
  • Transition Bath

Find out more about the winners and their projects.

Ipsos MORI and the Carbon Trust will help evaluate the impact and effectiveness of competition projects as they develop, and provide support to participants.

This will generate a practical evidence based on what works best for businesses to engage with their smart meter data, and change their behaviour to reduce energy consumption.

Link: Press release: Helping small businesses to control their energy costs
Source: Gov Press Releases

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Press release: Government to end unnecessary PIP reviews for people with most severe health conditions

New guidance coming into effect this summer means people who are awarded the highest level of support under PIP – and where their needs are expected to stay the same or increase – will receive an ongoing award of PIP with a light touch review every 10 years.

The change will ensure that those with severe or progressive conditions receive an award which reflects the fact that their condition will not improve.

The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Sarah Newton, said:

We’re absolutely determined to ensure people get the right support that they need to live better, more comfortable lives.

PIP is a needs-based benefit that takes into consideration people’s individual, and sometimes quite complicated circumstances.

We’ve listened to feedback from organisations and the public, and this common-sense change will ensure that the right protections are in place while minimising any unnecessary stress or bureaucracy.

The government will be working with stakeholders to design the light touch review process so that it adds value for both our claimants and the department – for example, by providing information on services available and ensuring that contact or bank details have not changed.

We are still finalising details of the guidance and will publish it later this summer.

Contact Press Office

Press Office

Caxton House

Tothill Street
London
SW1H 9NA

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Link: Press release: Government to end unnecessary PIP reviews for people with most severe health conditions
Source: Gov Press Releases

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The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

Under sections 160ZA(2) and 185(2) of the Housing Act 1996 (c. 52) (“the 1996 Act”), a person who is subject to immigration control is ineligible for an allocation of housing or for housing assistance unless they come within a class of persons prescribed in regulations by the Secretary of State.

Link: The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2018
Source: Legislation .gov.uk

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Press release: British gift exports in high demand on Father’s Day

  • UK exports increased by 8.2 % in the year to May 2018
  • tech gadgets are top of the list in most Father’s Day wish lists
  • there is global demand for quality British goods, with companies such as Mo Bros and Extreme Fliers seeing a rise in their international business since joining the Department for International Trade’s (DIT) exporting programmes

The value of UK goods exports increased by 8.2 % in the year to May 2018, recent HMRC data shows.

Making the most of international demand, Leicester-based Mo Bros are now exporting their beard care goods to 78 countries, providing the latest facial fashion to fathers everywhere.

After embarking on the challenge to ‘grow a mo’ for charity in 2014, brothers Keval, Kunal and Savan Dattani identified a gap in the market for grooming products which catered for all beard types – and so Mo Bros was born. Sourcing the finest British ingredients, the brothers produce a beard care range, exporting over 250,000 products to men around the world in the last 3 years.

Kunal Dattani, co-founder of Mo Bro’s, said:

Since working with DIT, we’ve found that there is huge international appetite for our products. The quality of British-stamped products is appreciated around the world meaning the possibilities for exporting is huge – if we can do it, so can other businesses.

Tech gadgets are at the top of most Father’s Day wish lists this year, and Extreme Fliers – the designers and manufacturers of personal Micro Drone technology – have seen significant export growth in the US.

Vernon Kerswell founded the company 4 years ago and now has a team of 12 inventors, designers and engineers. Since joining DIT’s E-Exporting programme in 2017, the company has rapidly increased online sales through US tech e-marketplace Newegg.

Vernon Kerswell, CEO, Extreme Fliers said:

Out of our small design studio in South London, we have built one of the UK’s leading drone technology companies. By combining the best high-tech engineering with global supply chains, we are able to develop products and scale very fast. With the DIT’s E-Exporting programme our products can quickly reach exciting new markets and customers around the world.

International Trade Minister Graham Stuart MP said:

It’s great to see companies such as Mo Bros and Extreme Fliers making the most of an ever-growing global demand for British goods and services.

The Department for International Trade offers a wide range of export support services to assist British businesses to take advantage of these global opportunities. This support includes our international trade advisers, a comprehensive list of export opportunities on great.gov.uk and our award-winning export credit agency, UK Export Finance.

Recent figures released by HMRC show the number of businesses exporting goods in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is at 109,000 – a rise of 4.1 % from the previous year.

In the first months of 2018, the average value of goods exported per business was £750,000.

For further information

Contact the DIT Media Team on 020 7215 2000 or email newsdesk@trade.gov.uk

Follow us: @tradegovuk, gov.uk/dit

Link: Press release: British gift exports in high demand on Father’s Day
Source: Gov Press Releases