Plumbing

The Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) has been working with Skills England and industry stakeholders to develop two new plumbing apprenticeship standards in England ST1452 – Level 2 Domestic Plumber ST1463 – Level 3 Advanced Plumbing and Heating Engineer These new standards are being developed to help ensure future apprentices gain the […]

Across the UK, copper theft is on the rise, with organised and opportunistic criminals targeting construction sites and partially completed buildings for unsecured or exposed pipework. At the same time, insurers are grappling with the escalating cost of ‘escape-of-water’ claims caused by faulty or damaged pipes.  For specifiers and installers, these are no longer operational […]

There have been several high-profile cases of Legionella outbreaks in 2026, highlighting the importance of detection and prevention.  Unfortunately, Basel experienced one linked to cooling towers, with 26 people falling ill and one person dying. This followed the outbreak follows a recent Legionnaires’ disease cluster in New York’s Upper East Side, where seven people died […]

The exceptionally strong El Niño event developing in the Pacific is set to have big implications for UK weather through autumn and winter, with forecasters predicting milder, wetter and stormier conditions, particularly from October onwards. Arctic Hayes by DiversiTech UK is braced for an upsurge of interest in drainage kits, pumps and gauges, leak detection […]

Francisc Pentek – Head of Product Operations, SONAS Bathrooms – looks at the water saving options in the bathrooms that installers can advise their customers on: The easing of drought conditions across parts of the UK may have reduced the immediate pressure on households to conserve water, but it has not removed the longer-term challenge […]