The Heating Engineers & Allied Trades Federation is pleased to announce a reduction in first year membership fees thanks to new commercial support.

Now being backed by Tuffa Tanks, Dobies Heat Systems and EOGB Energy Products, the federation is offering an introductory membership rate of only £20 for 2013.

Alan Black, director and co-founder of HEAT Fed, said: “The more members we have the better we can control and even reduce the federation membership fees – it is so very good and appreciated to see companies supporting engineers in a way that can make a real difference.”

The federation is a not for profit organisation, set up, run and governed by its members to provide an independent voice for heating engineers and allied tradesmen.

Its recent activity includes successfully raising and supporting a challenge regarding the lack of rights for ‘Registered Technicians’ under a Competent Person Scheme (CPS). The CPS concerned is now re-writing its rules of registration to enshrine the rights of the individual technician to be able to raise a formal complaint and have it properly investigated and resolved.

“It was proposed by the Commission that every time a boiler was fitted an installer (“dealer” in EU terminology) would have to create a system efficiency label via a non-existent website in Brussels utilising a non-existent methodology and inputting non-existing data when connected to existing systems!” said Black.

The federation used EU directive Article 15 to challenge this as being an impractical, non cost effective and non-productive (i.e. would not directly save carbon) measure. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) agreed with the federation’s stance and challenged the Commission earlier this year.

The latest news is that around 50% of the installer label requirements are no longer included in the Commission working documents, and the federation is in communication with DEFRA and the controls equipment manufacturers association TACMA to negate the need for the remainder of the installer label requirements.