You and Yours - 14/01/2009

Presented by Winifred Robinson. Water companies have called on the government for a change in the law that would allow them to restrict the flow of water to homes of persistent bill evaders. A consumer trial of domestic wind turbines found that they fell below manufacturers' expectations. We hear from Encraft, a consultancy that advises on environmentally friendly technologies and policy, on whether wind turbines are really any good at powering your home. The wind energy industry believes the research is flawed. A report claims that 40 councils are planning 7000 redundancies across the UK. We hear from Sir Jeremy Beecham, vice chair of the Local Government Association, and from the BBC's Local Government Correspondent on how the public is likely to be affected. Last year You and Yours reported on a sort of 'Dragon's Den' for social care at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, where five finalists pitched their ideas to an expert panel with funding to give. Melanie Abbott goes back to see what happened next. We examine the predictions made by the retail research company Verdict about the future of high street retailing and hear from the director general of the British Retail Consortium. The pest control group Rentokil reports that calls to tackle moths were up by a quarter across the UK last year. Aggie MacKenzie from How Clean Is Your House and Julia Dee from Total Wardrobe Care offer their advice on how to protect your home from moth damage.