Rounding out the year

I want to thank all the Branch and Association members who attended the Master Plumbers Forum (formerly Half-Yearly) at the Rydges in Wellington earlier this month. It was so nice to have a Master Plumbers meeting face-to-face again and I was pleased to give an update on our advocacy projects and for all our team to be able to showcase some exciting initiatives being rolled out in 2021.

We are really pleased to announce that we have created an 0800 wellbeing support number for members and their staff across New Zealand. We have seen a real need as a membership organisation to ensure we offer members good support in the wellbeing space and it is a great development on the back of our Wellbeing on Tap programme, which we started at the beginning of this year.

In other industry news, the BDO report on the construction sector has recently been released and although there is still some uncertainty for 2021, so far, every economic forecast has underestimated our sector’s resilience and ability to recover. New Zealand is still experiencing very strong housing demand, so we are confident that the first six months of 2021 will remain strong for our industry.

We have particularly noticed the renovation sector peaking to record high levels. As the results of our 2020 Master Plumbers member survey show, this means that shortages of tradespeople and staff will remain one of the top three issues in 2021—so making sure that your business is utilising the Apprenticeship Boost funding and hiring your first or additional apprentices is actually going to be critical in the years to come.

The Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) tested a range of electric hot water cylinder models sold in New Zealand and recently released the results. Unfortunately, eight out of 12 cylinders tested did not comply with Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS).

Although I’ve made it clear that I believe building and plumbing merchants should be the ones fined for selling products that don’t comply with the Building Code, the fact remains that the installers are the ones who can be penalised for installing non-compliant products. This is a reminder to all members that it is your responsibility to ensure the products you install meet the Building Code and New Zealand Standards. If you are unsure, check with the merchant because future liability will sit with you as the installer.

By now, you will have noticed that registrations are live for the 2021 New Zealand Plumbing Conference. A big thank you to members and Business Partners who rolled over their 2020 bookings, and we really encourage all other members to come along to wonderful Marlborough and enjoy some hospitality, meet with colleagues and hear industry updates. We have a great programme that we are very excited about and some highly talented guest speakers.

Finally, 2020 has been probably the most challenging for business in New Zealand in our history and we’ve shown that we are resilient, robust and critically important to our communities. We should be proud of what we’ve achieved and the way we have supported our industry.