Ferdinand

You have to watch this - they are very hot on this, especially in London. They can catch you for Council Tax with far less than Dom Cummings did. But there is an exemption for "occupied by dependent family". But check very carefully. If it is capable of such occupation, you can end up with Council Tax even when empty.

Can you lend him the digger for 15 minutes?

Yep - that's good.

The thing about pro-attenuation ponds is that they have controlled outlets to flatten the water drainage 'lump', so to speak. Usually means electronic control. Otherwise they would be a big soakaway with an overflow. Do you have somewhere to overflow to? (I think your flow sequence is overcomplicating it, unless you want all those garden features) I think in your case I would suggest something like one of those waterholes where lungfish live when they dry out. Make it big enough (ie perhaps embankment made from the diggings) to be a pond deep enough to absorb a sufficient mass of water to cover peak events to your chosen frequency or time period, which will go down to be a bog garden during dry spells. But have a deeper bit at the bottom with a liner to provide a swimming pool for the newts that lasts longer as a pool. Then have an overflow over the top for *real* super events, and have a pipe through the bottom of the bank with a plug (or a portapump) so that you can part or fully empty it through the overflow if another flood event is coming when it is full.. That will let you smooth out flood surges, hopefully normally by themselves. You need to size it. For my housing estate site it was about 425 sqm and 600mm deep per Ha of site area if that helps ?. Try working with numbers for a peak rainfall of 2 hours over your house / hardstanding or garden area (both lots have to go somewhere), analagous to Regs for soakaway volume related to your roof area. Then guestimate from there on the generous side. All you need is a .. er .. digger. In spring and autumn you will be able to film a Lancashire version of the Hippopotamus Song.

Check to see if your Change of Use falls under Permitted Development under the recent changes, where I think the Govt has now won its legal action. Then the problem may basically go away. https://www.weightmans.com/insights/planning-regulations-for-controversial-pd-rights-and-use-class-e-survive-judicial-review-challenge/

How does a "Grand Total Excluding Tax" include "Import tax"? It will be interesting to see what happens when the EU adopts the anti-fraud changes that have just been implemented here, in July. And to repeat a question above - where's the VAT? I think it is what I heard a business rep say on the radio the other day - it will take some time to bed down. For self-builders, I think one channel I expect to develop is from EU via Ebay.

Anyone will be able to match a named F&B colour.

Appeals can be quick. When we had a political no in April for ours; we turned the appeal round in a fortnight, and had the Yes in a further 8 weeks,

Sarah Beeny wasn't ! It may be a more convenient way of getting what you want than any alternative. You just need to make sure you don't put them in a position to just name their price.

I take it that the cat does not like peppers.

Let me throw in a few plan ideas, having asked the orientation question. - I like that your bedrooms are all doubles and all different. - I wonder about that machine room out in a far corner. That will be a long hot water run to, for example, your kitchen. Ditto some heating. I might suggest a cupboard in the current pantry back to back with the all. - As discussed, you may have a red herring or two in the downstairs loos. I wonder about making the bed 3 loo-shower into the visitor one by moving the door. Maybe even making it a bed 3 / hall Jack and Jill. IMO that is only time a jack and Jill is really acceptable. - Biggest suggestion. I think that the dining and living are the wrong way round. The end section has better 2 aspect (3 if you adjust the study) light, and you will spend more time in the living area during the day. Putting the dining by the front door gives more scope for narrowing the gable either side should you need. Personally I would be more radical and try to get the kitchen with a S and an E aspect - mine faces N with bigger windows than this and it is still too dark. And that is in the English Midlands, which I think gets more light in general than Reiver Country. F

Hi Where's North? And the best views? And the main part of your garden? Cheers F

As with most others, I think a little jiggery-pokery and you could be there. I would suggest making your pipes symmetrical, aligning the gable-bottom with the roof, if poss putting that flue pipe behind the ridge, and perhaps bringing the door arch inside the frame of the quoins (= the larger blocks on the corners of the walls). But see if you can tease out of the PO what are his suggestions. F

Driving by, what does your recent EPC say? Not sure about just how they fit in the process, but it only costs about £50 to get a new one done.

I would think about plywood on a couple of sides of the frame, for extra rigidity.

I think a thermal photo would show up gaps in the insulation even better.

We were missing you. x

On the missing name address, can you get a stamp made up then just stamp your n/a on it so that it looks like it was done at the time? Does that help? Don't make them all look identical, or ink to soak through to the next. "Couple of questions" - I love engineering approximations.

One other elephant in this room is that even if implemented now there would be at least 5 years (more likely 8-9 ) before it made it into a significant proportion of houses being built. The housing estate I obtained Outline PP for in 2012/13 on family land has started to be built in summer 2020 ... and it's not a very big one by developer standards.

Recognise the issue, however afaik the actual % of flats in UK is more like 20-25% (6 million from 30 million ish). https://files.bregroup.com/bretrust/The-Housing-Stock-of-the-United-Kingdom_Report_BRE-Trust.pdf Fig 2.4.

Another word for solar cover = "greenhouse".

A couple of potential impacts: 1 - I would see low end house prices in Bolsover drift up over time due to the reduced cost of running a house, which would lift certain zombie infill building plots into viability. ie Plot work cost + build cost becomes > potential sale price. ie Some plots become worth more than zero. 2 - Potential price reductions in London and similar? Needs more evaluation, and the London market is slightly chaotic at present. F

Back on topic. I have been running some numbers on the proposals we discussed for replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty with an annual tax of 0.48% on house value, and it is surprising in 2-3 respects: 1 - Significant benefit for less wealthy areas. In eg Bolsover virtually everyone will benefit. A household in a 80-100k trad terrace will be approx £1000 a year better off. In that sort of area the balance is between Council Tax and the new Tax, and Stamp Duty is nearly irrelevant for the huge majority. That is a 2-3% uplift in a typical household income. It becomes neutral at roughly the level of a 250k-300k house in that area. But above that no Stamp Duty becomes a bonus. 2 - In wealthier areas the balance at 300k-500k or so house level is between CT and the new Tax, with no Stamp Duty as a long term sweetener as the new tax exceeds current CT level. Even in London the median house price is 450k-ish, so a majority benefit. 3 - In really wealthy areas it alters. Take George Osborne's old house in Notting Hill, £4m ish, and the Annual Tax is 19k, but about 400k of Stamp Duty is taken out of the transaction on sale or purchase. Is that a loss? It is a really intriguing hybrid of a services tax and a wealth tax, and very well designed by the coalition. The website for the original proposers are here, and it includes a loss/gain calculator: https://fairershare.org.uk/ Their numbers are that 75% of households will save. To me this looks like potentially the first strategic shift towards the so called "levelling up" agenda, whilst so far we have had proposals for revectoring of Govt Expenditure. May write to my MP on this one.

This is the comparison table with past and future regs @the_r_sole. Plus doc attached. Where do you think the extra cost is? Column 3 is the interim measures to come in soon. Column 4 is the FHS, which in connection with a decarbonised power supply is the route to Zero Carbon. I'm not really sure that I see huge extra cost in the interim, though some certainly, and I think that is by design. The big changes are the low temp heating (wonder if big rads count?), and the interesting tactical thing of Wastewater HR and is that compulsory PV (would affect estate layout?), which go away again (later put them back for a route to carbon positive?), and the gas boiler ban. To me the fabric changes are not *that* ambitious. I think that including the impact of zero carbon energy supply is probably correct, as that is likely to happen first given where we are at present. There's a contrast between the huge majority of responses demanding more, more, more, and the smaller number of people living in older houses who have not taken action themselves. I think the air permeability is not ambitious enough, and perhaps also a couple of others. 2021-Government_response_to_Future_Homes_Standard_consultation.pdf

er .... but perhaps not Kingspan or St Gobain ?. I think 0.15 is roughly what many of us build to. eg 0.15 is Brick Outer, 120mm Celotex or 225mm EPS, and Lightweight Block Inner. So not that demanding in BH context. There's a comparison table which I will post. I have not got my head around what standards will apply to extension. Will this be the same? The thicker of the two versions of Durisol, without extra internal insulation, is about 0.15 .