An award-winning energy saving specialist is in line to chair the voice of the building industry in Wales.
Gareth Jones, 30, Managing Director of Carbon Zero UK, will become the first ever North Wales national chairman of the Federation of Master Builders for Wales when he takes over in two years.
He was this week elected Vice-Chairman of the Wales branch of the organisation which represents builders across the UK and will step up to the Chairmanship in 2014.
He said: “I’m delighted and honoured to have been chosen. The Federation is a vitally important voice for the industry and does a great job in promoting the interests of small and medium sized builders and their customers.
“We insist on high standards among our members so that clients can be assured that they will get a proper service and we play a huge part in ensuring that their voice is heard at the highest levels.
“It’s a great opportunity to get myself more involved with the FMB nationally because it is an organisation in which I believe passionately.
“It’s a great organisation and a great bunch of people to work with and it can have a really positive effect on things that affect the industry such as legislation.”
Richard Jenkins, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “In time, of course, Gareth will be Chairman and President of the FMB in Wales and I am very much looking forward to seeing his progression.
“He typifies the sort of industrious, focussed and competent member of the FMB we all hope our members strive to be. To paraphrase the old adage, he doesn’t ask ‘what can the Federation do for me but what can I do for the Federation’.
“I fully trust him to act on the Federation’s behalf in the North and his support is becoming legend. The Vice presidency is a clear tribute to his endeavours on our behalf.”
Gareth, from Llandudno, founded Carbon Zero UK at St Asaph in 2009 and it has grown in less than three years into a company with a turnover of more than £1 million.
It was recently selected onto the Welsh Government’s High Growth Scheme which is for companies with the potential for annual growth of 20 per cent.
Carbon Zero UK specialises in a complete range of renewable energy and energy saving solutions for domestic and commercial properties including solar and wind power, air and ground source heating, rainwater harvesting, biomass, insulation and even a range of eco window blinds .
It operates across North Wales and into Cheshire and the North West and has seen its turnover increase by a projected 400 per cent this year while clients include top top radio DJ Mark Radcliffe – who is very happy with the new biomass boiler at his Cheshire farmhouse – Glyndwr University at Wrexham, Calderstones Hospital in Lancashire, a Buddhist sanctuary near Porthmadog, village halls in the Vale of Clwyd, a community centre in Preston and a museum in Bolton.
Gareth was the youngest ever President of the Federation of Master Builders in North Wales and is currently Chairman of the North Wales branch.
His father, Tom, has run the well-known groundworks company Mini Muckshift for 25 years and Gareth went into the building industry at 18 as an engineer’s assistant and developed a career in civil engineering and building .
He was a site agent at 22 on a £12 million road scheme in North Wales and at 23 was a Senior Engineer on a £650 million super-hospital in Birmingham where Balfour Beatty was the main contractor.
Wales Business Insider magazine named him as one of its top 25 rising stars in 2009 and he was runner-up in the Daily Post Achievement Wales Awards for business person of the year while last year business networking organisation Free2Network named him as their first ever Business Person of the Year at their inaugural Awards at the prestigious Quay Hotel and Spa at Deganwy. Carbon Zero UK was recently also nominated as Installer of the Year for the Renewable Energy Association.
Commenting on the Budget as a member of FMB in North Wales he said: “The help announced last week for first-time buyers and the Budget news that construction companies are to receive extra funding to build new homes are positives.
“With my Federation hat on I would welcome those measures and the reduction in red tape that the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework will bring although it is a shame that the Chancellor hasn’t extended the Stamp Duty holiday for first-time buyers.”
But he branded it a missed opportunity from the ‘green’ perspective and added: “It is a serious disappointment with no Green outlook for the future.
“Instead the Government are putting £3 billion into fossil fuels and saying they are the way forward with gas in particular the fuel of the future.
“I had hoped that green energy would be a priority but that hasn’t happened, there was nothing on the Renewable Heating Initiative Premium Payment and no encouragement for the renewable industry generally.
“The Budget has missed the opportunity to give more help to smaller construction companies. Building is a major key in starting the engine of the economy and the Chancellor has failed to turn that key.”
