Shed of the Year 2020 finalists announced

Lockdown has spurred the nation’s shed owners to impressively imaginative heights as they compete for the Cuprinol Shed of the Year crown. The 2020 contest sees the introduction of two new lockdown-specific categories - Lockdown Repurpose and Lockdown New-build - as the finalists are announced.

The Lockdown Repurpose category celebrates those who have transformed their sheds in response to the coronavirus outbreak, including Sarah McGoldrick who responded to the PPE shortage in the early days of the pandemic by supplying frontline NHS staff with visors from her shed workshop in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

The Lockdown New-build category hails those who have overcome the challenges of lockdown. These include retired art school lecturer Michael Roberts from Bromley, Kent, whose former pupils include Damien Hirst and Steve McQueen, who created an elaborate Chinese-style pagoda.

The shortlist also features:

- Pat Crook, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, has recreated a beach hut to provide her father who suffers from dementia with soothing surroundings

- Adrian Backshall from Eastbourne, East Sussex has built his shed on a railway trolley

- Colin Furze from Stamford, Lincolnshire uses his shed to come up with inventions including a full-size Star Wars Landspeeder (a strong entry in the Workshops category where Suitcase Trains HQ is also a likely contender)

Judges whittled down hundreds of entries to compile this year’s shortlist of 27 sheds in nine categories including Budget, Summerhouse, Unique and Unexpected. A winner from each will be decided by public vote, then an overall winner will be crowned by a panel of shed experts with a giant golden crown for the winning shed. The overall winner will also receive £1,000, a plaque and £100 of Cuprinol products.

Head Judge and founder of the competition Andrew Wilcox said: “More than ever, the events of recent months have shown us what a valuable role sheds can play in our lives. They are spaces where we can help our NHS heroes, educate our children and care for our family.”

Public voting is now underway for the 14th annual competition and will close on August 8. Check out all of the 27 finalists and cast your vote at www.readersheds.co.uk
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Grumpycorn: garden offices for children

A lovely introduction to the delights of shedworking for children by writer and illustrator Sarah McIntyre, her book Grumpycorn tells the story of, well, here's how Sarah describes it:

Unicorn’s so excited… he’s going to write the most FABULOUS story in the world!

He has a special writing cottage where he can be all alone and find inspiration. What else does he need? Maybe his special pen. And his special tea. And maybe some home-baked cookies. …And an idea.

NOT the ideas of the friends - Narwhal, Mermaid and Jellyfish - who curiously arrive to find out about this fabulous story and beg to have starring roles… no, not THOSE ideas. Just GO AWAY, everyone!

Available from all good bookshops. Strongly recommended
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Studypod nature office

Black has been in vogue for garden offices for several years now, and if you like the sound of that then it's worth taking a look at the Studypod nature office from Norwegian company Livit. It's all fairly minimalist ("zenminimalist" is actually how Livit accurately describe it) and not a lot of features, including a detachable desk, oak laminate flooring, and heavy duty lockable wheels as an extra. But the USP (as nobody seems to say any more) is that it is very black with a large hardened tinted window to the front. It's delivered ready to go, internal specs of 2m x 1.8m. If you like this, then you may also like their Birdbox model which has very similar characteristics. --------------------------------------

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Rise in beach hut rental prices

There are roughly 20,000 beach huts in the UK for those looking for a shedlike element to their holidays. Recent research by Howsy and GetAgent indicates that whether you're renting or buying on the south coast of England, the prices continue on their inexorable rise.

Howsy's figures suggest that the average total for renting one is £1,525 a month, 2.5% more than 2019. Unsurprisingly, Mudeford in Dorset leads the pack where prices are just below £4,000 a month (if it's any consolation this is only a 1.2% increase on last year). Elsewhere, Whitstable huts cost a monthly average £1,232 (up 4.1%) and £948 per month in Sandbanks in Dorset (up 3%).

It's just over £830 (up 5.6%) in Southwold, Suffolk, and around £750 in Bournemouth (£752, or 4.4%), the two areas which have witnessed the largest surges.

As always, there are some ludicrous prices. Beach huts are still going for well north of £300,000 at Mudeford, though not all are so dear - pictured top is Noahs Ark, Beach Hut 75 at North Beach in Southwold, on with Durrants for a mere £67,500. On average, a hut costs nearly £37,000, rising to £90,000 in Dorset but only £10,500 in West Sussex.

“It would seem as though beach huts offer the solution to a buy-to-let sector that has been battered by a string of government changes to tax relief and stamp duty," said Calum Brannan, CEO of Howsy. "While the cost of acquiring a beach hut is generally far lower than the regular market, the astronomical rents secured on them will be resulting in some very favourable yields indeed."
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Does a garden office count as a benefit in kind?

There appear to be no hard and fast rules about what you can and can't claim when you start working from a garden office (which is why we always say check with your tax advisor and the tax authorities before claiming anything). Here's an interesting Q&A from the Irish Independent on the subject of 'Bik', benefits in kind.

The questioner's company is going to pay a substantial grant towards homeworking and they wonder if there is a tax implication in so doing, particularly if it is subject to benefit in kind. Here's the reply from Joanna Murphy, CEO of Taxback.com:

"Benefit in kind is any non-cash benefit provided by employers to their employees, such as company cars, medical insurance etc. As these have a monetary value, they must be treated as income. Revenue Commissioners confirmed that employers may provide the following equipment and facilities to an e-working employee for business use: computer or laptop, printer, scanner, software, telephone, mobile, broadband, office furniture, which won't be treated as Bik where private use is minimal. A garden office could potentially qualify for the above tax treatment, where private use is minimal. However, I would recommend that an approval from Revenue is taken in advance."

Image courtesy Garden2office.   -------------------------------------------------
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Warwick Bartlett: lockdown shedworker

A nice piece in the Isle of Man Courier about Warwick Bartlett who has been running his company Global Betting and Gaming Consultants from his summerhouse during lockdown. Here's a snippet:

Former bookmaker Mr Bartlett, originally from the West Midlands, inherited the summer house when he moved to his current home in Castletown in 2009. The wooden structure was a place ’where we stored things like suitcases. the mower and all that kind of stuff. There were lots of spiders in here and stuff. So I have given it a clean-out, painted it, had some carpet put down and had the electrician come and rewire it all’. He’s also had a radiator fitted - ’it’s got a timer fitted so it comes on an hour before I get to work in the morning’. Mr Bartlett added: ’On a sunny day I can sit here with the doors open, it’s quite relaxing really.’

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Home offices now a "make-or-break feature" when selling houses

It's a bold statement from the Telegraph but they go some way to backing it up by talking to leading estate agents (albeit working in a high value home bracket). Here's a snippet:

“It’s the hottest topic among buyers, sellers, developers and house builders,’ says Marc Schneiderman from the prime Hampstead-based estate agency Arlington Residential. ‘The majority of buyers expect a workspace of some kind.” And it needn’t be big. “I have one client who runs his multi-million-pound business from a laptop and mobile phone in his home study that’s no more than 10 square feet,” he adds.

Mark Lawson, partner at The Buying Solution, also sticks his neck out in the piece over the perennial question of how much a garden or home office adds to an asking price by suggesting that a good quality home office can add 5-15% to a property’s value, “especially if it’s separate from the main house".

Image courtesy The Bedroom Company ------------------------------------------------------

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