Radiator madness
I am indebted to a former colleague for today’s news, from the industry website KBB Review, that British radiators will soon be unsaleable in the UK and it is all down to Brexit.
British radiators, like nearly every other product used to have to conform to EU standards and be tested before they can get a CE mark, which means they could be sold anywhere in the EU including the UK and often far beyond. Rather than sticking with that system the UK government left the scheme and launched its own kite mark and standards, the UKCA. The industry assumed since the radiator standards for the UK and EU are identical all it would have to do is apply for a UK kite mark and in the meantime the CE mark would be accepted.
But the Government is insisting that all radiators sold in the UK be tested again to meet the new but identical standards and by the end of the year. Which means all radiators now in shops and warehouses will be illegal to sell in 7 months time and with only one test centre on this country capable of doing the tests, only a small minority of new radiators can pass the new test by the year’s end.
So the industry is saddled with two lots of testing, of identical products to identical standards, which the Government could have easily avoided. It also has run right into a brick wall of Government stupidity, it is only to be hoped that the Government will see the light and introduce an intelligent compromise.
But the whole mess is the logical consequence of the Brexit ultras refusal to have anything to do with the EU or its works, even when they are in the UK’s best interests. Radiators are just the latest and won’t be the last product to suffer as a consequence. It is just one more small example of the long term economic costs of Brexit.
https://jonty.substack.com/