Under the government’s £3bn energy-efficiency scheme, forty-two million energy-saving lightbulbs were sent out by utilities companies. Since the scheme began, 224m bulbs have been distributed, amounting to about 10 for each household.

However, according to a survey by the Energy Saving Trust, most people had six unused bulbs lying in drawers.

The government estimated that for this scheme to be most effective, 110m bulbs should be distributed and that 2.9m expensive domestic cavity-wall insulations should be carried out.

The latest reports from Ofgem shows that just under 1m cavity walls have been insulated for households, which is half the annual rate needed.

Companies are finding loopholes where they can so they can meet their obligations in the cheapest way possible, but it takes the more expensive measures, such as cavity-wall insulation to really save energy. The cost of the carbon emissions reduction target scheme are passed onto households through higher utility bills.

After 1 January, Ofgem only distributed bulbs to consumers who requested them and that prompted a deluge of bulbs before Christmas as companies rushed to take advantage before the loophole was closed.

Andrew Warren, chief executive of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: “The difficulty is that companies have exploited the loopholes. It’s critical because this scheme is the centrepiece of the government’s drive to improve energy efficiency in the home. It should be about achieving what it’s supposed to do rather than just ticking boxes.”

The Guardian has also learned that before Christmas, a marketing company acting on behalf of an energy supplier broke the scheme’s rules by sending out water-saving “low-flow” shower attachments to households that had not requested them. Ofgem alerted Eaga, the company administering the scheme, and the marketing company was dropped.

Energy experts have criticised the lax regulation of the scheme, particularly in its first year.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

Xeros Ltd, a Leeds-based company has developed a washing machine that uses 90% less water than a normal machine and could be available by the end of 2011.

It replaces water with tiny plastic beads that suck up stains and it is claimed it will cut back household energy bills, too.

The Xeros process uses 3mm-long nylon beads that can get into all the crevices and folds of clothing and can also be re-used hundreds of times. The beads flood the machine’s drum once the clothes are wet and the humidity is at the right level. After the washing cycle is complete, the beads drain away in the same way as water in a conventional machine.

Bill Westwater, chief executive of Xeros, said: “The net saving in water, detergent and electricity and including the cost of the beads, we calculate, is about a 30% cost saving for the user.” He stated the machine has been tested on a range of fabrics stained with everything from mud, red wine and curry stains to ink from ballpoint pens.

According to reports, the carbon emissions saved would be the equivalent of taking 1.4 m cars off the roads. It will also allow many of your delicates to be “dry” cleaned at home.

Xeros has already received research and development funding from Yorkshire Forward and has just returned from a government-sponsored “Clean and Cool” trade mission to the United States, aimed at securing investment from venture capitalists in Silicon Valley in California.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

The Digital Economy bill is receiving a fair amount of criticism from service providers and users, with ISP TalkTalk being one of the most vocal.

The Financial Times also published a letter stating the plans to suspend internet access to anyone illegally downloading is unfair and specifically criticizing the amendment passed last week in the House of Lords and backed by the Liberal Democrat and Conservative peers.

Internet service providers would be required to block access to certain sites pursuant to court orders.

The letter to the Financial Times states, “blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended. To rush through such a controversial proposal at the tail end of a parliament, without any kind of consultation with consumers or industry, is very poor lawmaking.”

The letter was signed on behalf of Orange, Facebook, Virgin Media, Google UK & Ireland, TalkTalk, ISPA UK, Consumer Focus, Open Rights Group, eBay UK, BT Group, Yahoo! UK & Ireland, Shooting People independent film makers, as well as academics from the University of Leicester, Queen Mary (University of London) and finally Tom Watson MP and Stephen Fry.

The BBC also reports that Chief Executive of BT Ian Livingstone has called for fines instead of disconnections.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

This week, npower has lowered its standard gas prices, but is that going to be enough? They will lower standard customers’ gas bills by 7%, so around two million of their customers will see their bills fall by around £50 a year.

Four of the six biggest energy companies have now lower their prices, but it might not be enough for some of their struggling consumers.

Scott Byrom, moneysupermarket.com’s head of utilities, demanded: “Where’s the price war we were all hoping for? It’s not a ‘price war’; it’s more like a ‘price fisticuffs’.”

Scott said: “npower is the fourth of the big six to offer their customers a tiny price drop – 7% to standard gas prices. While this cut is on a par with the recent cut from rival British Gas, npower unfortunately hasn’t even come close to taking the top spot on price for dual fuel customers; it currently sits fifth in the table for standard dual fuel tariffs.”

He also warned that, apart from British Gas, these cuts are effective from the end of March, which won’t be much help to customers who needed lower costs during the freezing winter weather.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

Investing in the stock market is not for the faint of heart. If you want to invest in the stock market, but have no idea where to start or how to decide what to invest your money in, you are not alone.

Here are some rules to help you and guide you toward making the right decisions.

To start you need to build a foundation. You need to have a job and a roof over your head before you spend money investing. There are some exceptions, such as borrowing and saving at the same time, in pension schemes.

Start out with low-risk options, cash in a bank account with a decent interest rate. Then buy bonds or commercial property. Then you can start buying shares in the stock market.

The best way into shares, for most people, is via an investment fund. With funds, lots of people invest together and spread the risk. Be patient. Good results are worth waiting for.

Bill Gross, the founder of PIMCO, the Pacific Investment Management Company, one of the world’s largest investment companies, said: “You must work intensely to keep your investment expenses as low as possible.” Fees and charges may mount up.

“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year,” said Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. Get-rich-quick schemes are as useless as they are commonplace.

Little can be achieved unless you are prepared to run some degree of risk. As Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte observed: “If you risk nothing, you gain nothing.”

Spread your money around. Don’t put it in just one bank or all in property or bonds. Diversify.

Ask questions. It is hard to overestimate the importance of being inquisitive and of asking impertinent and/or seemingly obvious questions.

Manage your risk and keep your fingers in a lot of different pies.

Last of all, Warren Buffett, a stock market guru whose fame matches his status as an investor par excellence, says that the most important rule of investment – his first rule – is not to lose money. “Rule number two,” says Buffett, is, “Never forget rule number one.”

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

BT plans to open up its network of cabling ducts to competitors, however, although this has been announced, BT had to call for equality of access. They are putting pressure on Ofcom and ministers to gain access to Virgin Media’s ducts which will allow BT to expand its network.

A BT spokesman talking to The Time said: “It is remarkable that those calling for open access from BT are not willing to provide it themselves. We call on others to follow BT’s lead in offering to open its infrastructure and content to all on a fair basis.

Competition is a two-way street. We support Jeremy Hunt’s [Shadow Secretary of State for Media] call for open access to all networks and call for others to follow our example and to open their infrastructure and services.”

BT already cover the same areas on the access network that Virgin have deployed their cable network, but BT still rely on overhead cable access via poles in some areas. With access to Virgin’s ducts, this could allow them to deploy fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) services through these without having to rely on overhead cabling which can be more easily affected by adverse weather conditions, and couple be more costly to install.

Ofcom is expected to look through the issue of duct access in the Spring which will hopefully bring some definitive expectations of what providers will have to do. The logical solution would be to create an open access system for ducts controlled centrally which would hopefully help reduce the amount of people digging up the roads to deploy new networks where competitors ducting sits idly by.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

The state-owned bank, Northern Rock has launched two new issues of fixed-rate bonds which offer guaranteed savings interest rates of at least 3.15 per cent. They offer the rate to one-year bonds, or a higher level of interest, 3.5 per cent, to consumers who put their money away for two years.

Account holders can choose to have their interest paid annually or monthly, although the latter rate is 0.3 per cent lower than the former. You can open the bonds either by post or through Northern Rock branches and you will be able to make additional deposits during the offer period up to a maximum of £2 million.

When the bond matures, they will become no notice accounts and all savers will be notified of the interest rate paid.

Last month, the Treasury removed the 100 per cent guarantee on Northern Rock savings, in a move welcomed by other UK lenders.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

It has been reported that the increasing practice among lenders to offer higher loan-to-values is a positive sign for those seeking cheap mortgage rates.

Ben Wilkie, editor of What Mortgage, said the market appeared to be returning to its pre-recession state – when only 16 per cent of the deals on offer asked for a 25 per cent deposit.

He said: “I think there’s a bit more confidence in the market; the housing market seems to be back on a slightly more even keel and there’s bit more confidence to mortgage companies.”

Mr Wilkie also stated that lenders were now having to be more flexible with their loan-to-values in order to attract customers.

“It really should help first-time buyers, because even to get a ten per cent deposit is hard enough and to get any higher than that is outrageous, for many people,” he said.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross mortgage lending declined to an estimated £9.1 billion in January 2010 – a 32 per cent fall from £13.4 billion in December 2009.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has held the base rate at 0.5 per cent for the 12^th consecutive month, choosing to freeze the rate, so homeowners on tracker deals should remain on cheap mortgage deals for at least another month.

The committee, at the regular March meeting, also chose to keep its £200 billion quantitative easing programme on hold after halting it in February.

Most economists had expected these moves, in light of the Bank’s attempts to help stimulate sustained economic recovery in the UK.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight, a company which specialises in economic and financial analysis, commented: “Any interest rate hikes are clearly off the agenda in at least the near term, and could very well be delayed until 2011.”

The most recent change in the interest rates was a 0.5 percentage point fall in March of 2009.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.

In the country’s first referendum as an independent nation, 93 per cent of the Icelandic population has voted against repaying  £3.3 billion worth of loans to the UK and Netherlands. They are calling for the government to withhold payment while the country restores its own economic health.

When the online bank, Icesave, collapsed in 2008, both the UK and the Netherlands were forced to compensate savers.

Steingrimur Sigfusson, the country’s finance minister, said the no vote did not mean Iceland was refusing to meet its obligations.  “To maintain anything else is highly dangerous for the economy of this country,” he stated.

However, Mr Sigfusson also indicated that further discussions would be necessary in order for an agreement to be reached.

Iceland’s prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who negotiated the deal with England and the Netherlands, spoke out against the proposed repayment deal ahead of the referendum.

Whether the government will withhold payment, or not, is still undetermined.

©2012 MoneyBlog. All Rights Reserved.