EWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF New minister visits villages pioneering heat network Lord Callanan has visited the Swaffham Prior heat network in Cambridgeshire shortly after he was announced as the new construction minister. The minister said the innovative, community-led project was breaking new ground and helping hundreds of families with their bills, while showcasing the perks of clean energy to the rest of the country. The project is looking to phase out oil-fuel heating and the energy centre features air source and ground source heat pumps, which will be powered by a council-owned solar farm for 90-95% of the time. The scheme aims to reduce carbon emissions and provide residents with a buffer against rising fuel bills. By driving forward new lowcarbon technologies like heat networks to warm homes, we can shield households from costly fossil fuels, Lord Callanan said. Clade partners with thermal store firm Natural refrigerant heat pump manufacturer Clade has announced a UK partnership with Belgian company IFTech, a specialist in designing, building and operating underground thermal storage systems. IFTech has more than 60 projects in its home country and 10 in the UK. Clade also provides design and project delivery and aftercare services, and the two firms aim to deliver a full range of underground thermal storage services to UK customers. Lord Callanan takes over as construction minister Former minister Lee Rowley resigned from Boris Johnsons government The government has appointed a new construction minister as part of the wide-ranging reshuffle triggered by the mass resignations in the run-up to Boris Johnson announcing that he was to step down as Prime Minister. Lord Callanan takes over from Lee Rowley, who was one of more than 50 ministers and aides to quit the government in protest at Johnsons conduct. The Tory peer has been parliamentary Lord Callanan Peer slams lost chance to insulate Money spent on recent household energy bill bailouts could have been used more efficiently if cuts to insulation budgets by the Conservative government after its 2015 General Election victory had not taken place, a minister has admitted. During a House of Lords debate, Liberal Democrat Lord Teverson said the UK would be in a better position than we are now if the then Chancellor, George Osborn, had not massacred various energy efficiency schemes. Pointing to the 37bn of energy bills support, he added: If only we were managing to put that money into these sorts of schemes, those fuel poverty numbers would start to come down rather than inevitably skyrocketing. Construction minister Lord Callanan said he entirely accepted the criticism: If we had spent some of this money on insulation schemes in previous years, that might have been a more efficient use of it. SCA Webinar Programme The Smoke Control Association (SCA) will be running a series of CIBSE certified CPD webinars in September and October. The five scheduled webinars are free to attend and will be hosted on the Zoom platform. l Tuesday 13 September (12 noon) - Guide on Smoke Control to Common Escape Routes in Apartment High Rise Buildings l Tuesday 20 September (12 noon) - Guide to CFD Design of Smoke Systems l Tuesday 27 September (12 noon) - Guide to Smoke Shaft Acceptance and Testing l Tuesday 4 October (12 noon) - Design of Car Park Smoke Control Systems by CFD l Tuesday 18 October (12 noon) - SCA/FMA Best Practice Guide to Smoke Extract Fan Maintenance If you would like to attend any of these webinars please email: info@smokecontrol.org.uk and you will be sent the registration details. 8 August 2022 www.cibsejournal.com under secretary of state at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) since February 2020. His responsibilities in this role included energy efficiency, fuel poverty and low carbon heat. He was also heavily involved in preparing the governments Heat and Buildings Strategy, which was launched in autumn 2021. Before joining BEIS, Lord Callanan a graduate in electrical and electronic engineering from Newcastle Polytechnic was a minister of state at the Department for Exiting the European Union, until it was abolished on 31 January 2020. Rowley was the only BEIS minister to resign, but there was much bigger churn at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC). Michael Gove, Secretary of State for levelling up, was sacked by Johnson after privately urging the PM to resign. The department also saw the departure of minister for housing Stuart Andrew, who has been replaced by Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones. However, junior housing minister Eddie Hughes, who holds responsibility for energy efficiency and building regulations at DLHUC, remains in post.