Heating Rural Homes

Greg Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Sir Bill Wiggin]

My hon. Friend is a rural champion, like myself. With his background in animal welfare, he feels the beat of the countryside in his veins. He is absolutely right about having that rural priority for vital things such as climate change, where we all want the right things. We all want to do the best we can for our constituents, but what works in inner London is so different from that which would affect his constituents, those in Brecon and Radnorshire, or the wonderful people of North Herefordshire.

As I said, the fuel price hit an unprecedented 110 pence per litre, double the regular cost, or even more. The Government moved commendably quickly to help secure our energy supply and to protect consumers through the energy price guarantee. However, for those off grid, that support was not forthcoming. The energy price guarantee ensured that gas and electricity bills were capped at about half of what they could have been, but those using alternative fuels received a £200 payment and there was no cap on the price. As a result, they were subjected to massive price increases, with little to safeguard them from factors completely out of their control. During this period, I received emails from people in Herefordshire whose houses are off the mains grid and who were deeply concerned by the rapidly increasing price of alternative fuel.

With the UK target of reaching net zero by 2050 in mind, the Government are pursuing a heat pump-led approach to secure energy independence for the UK. Their well-meaning boiler ban, set to take effect in 2026, will force homeowners to replace their gas and oil boilers with low-carbon alternatives. Although that ban may be well-intentioned and appears to align with the target of reaching net zero by 2050, we have forgotten the impracticality of such a ban for those people living off grid. With 75% of rural properties off the gas grid, these homeowners rely on alternative heating methods. Of all the off-grid homes in the UK, 55% are heated with heating oil, just 18% with electricity, 11% with solid fuel and 10% with liquid petroleum gas. That means that 76% of off-grid households will soon have to replace their heating systems.

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate for the 15% of households in my constituency who are off the gas grid. Does he agree that the best way the Government could rise to the challenge he is powerfully making is to adopt the proposal from my right hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice) to permit the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil and other sustainable fuels in existing oil burners and indeed new oil-burning boilers, so that customers and residents of all our constituencies are not forced to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a technology that may not actually work?

[Sir Bill Wiggin]

All I can say is that those 15% of my hon. Friend’s constituents are lucky to have such a champion in their MP—what a hero for rural sensibility. We are truly blessed to have an intervention such as that. Later in my speech, I may touch on the subject of HVO. What he is saying is absolutely right. We need to be much broader in our outlook about what works for people, not through force, but through choice, so that the people who want to do the right thing can do so, rather than being curmudgeonly bullied—

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Bill Wiggin]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I saw you thinking that that was perhaps a bit of a long intervention, but it was pure gold. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: these energy performance certificates are not just stupid and useless, but absolutely evil when it comes to the fundamental right of people to want to own their own homes—something in which we on the Conservative Benches believe passionately. Worse than that, if someone cannot get an EPC rating of C, they cannot rent a house either. All of this will be no different from the land clearances, when people were shipped off into the cities because they simply could not or were not allowed to live in the countryside. It is an appalling situation and my right hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight it. I hope the Minister is trembling on the Front Bench at the vehemence of loathing that I have for EPCs, not least because, when I last got one, it said that we should have built a windmill in the garden. How stupid can you get when it comes to really mindless environmental legislation. I care very much about this because, if we are going to do a good job of saving the planet, we cannot be handicapped by cretinous legislation such as EPCs. I ask the Minister to please fix it.

To go back to the speech in hand, we have covered traditional features in old homes. Indeed, it is even more troublesome and expensive to retrofit a listed building, of which there are around 500,000 in England. They have solid floors and walls and are much more difficult to rectify. The House will be aware of the debates I have held on environmental standards for listed buildings and the most welcome progress that was made to allow double glazing by Historic England—a small step, one might think, but to have 500,000 houses in this country banned from having double glazing just reinforces why I rage at EPCs. There are all the other environmental steps that we want to take but are banned from taking.

[Greg Smith]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Sir Bill Wiggin]

I would be delighted to give way to my hon. Friend; I have hardly started.

[Greg Smith]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way twice. Does he agree that many of the houses that are challenged by the EPC regime simply cannot have the retrofitting he talks about, such as those built out of cob or witchert, a form of cob unique to the Vale of Aylesbury—to declare an interest, my own house is partially made out of witchert—where the walls need to breathe? Therefore, people cannot put in place the measures that would allow a higher EPC rating or allow a heat pump to work in the first place.

[Sir Bill Wiggin]

I feel for my hon. Friend. When we buy a washing machine or dishwasher and look at the energy rating on it, it is a helpful guide to what we should expect our fuel bills to be. However, the EPCs for houses are off the scale in their inability to provide anything useful and I am mustard-keen for the Minister to tackle them.

My fear is that Historic England, that wonderful body that has been trying to make Leominster a nicer place, may go back on its guidance on double glazing and on the curtilage of listed buildings. That would be a shame because, while there is an industry built up with secondary glazing, it is really important that as a Government we help people to do the right thing. Something that saves energy, improves fuel efficiency and makes houses nicer places to live in is obviously a sensible step.

I am sure the Minister does not find it hard to see why the boiler upgrade scheme has been such a disappointment. Tragically, £90 million-worth of subsidy is being given back to the Treasury due to the difficulty of uptake. The Government’s latest scheme offers households grants of between £5,000 and £6,000 for low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps—kind, well-meaning and hopelessly inappropriate. Ofgem figures show that fewer than 10,000 installations were completed under the scheme between its launch in May last year and March this year.

Households with a broken boiler could wait up to six months to source a certified installer, as the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) said, receive a grant, if they are lucky, purchase the heat pump, if it is available, and have it installed, by which time they may have suffered without heating during the coldest months of the year. That is never going to deliver on our ambitions, not least because every broken boiler is a missed opportunity. It means people will go out and buy another fossil fuel boiler because the option to buy a heat pump was just too difficult.

We cannot afford to drop the ball like that. Every time someone needs a new boiler, surely the right thing is for them to say, “Thank goodness for the Minister! She made it so much easier for me to get a super-efficient, clean boiler, which is not just keeping me toasty in the winter, but saving the planet for my children and grandchildren.” That is where we need to get to, and I know the Minister is listening and smiling with delight because that opportunity is opening up before her.

While the Government may have set the ambitious target of 600,000 installations of heat pumps per year by 2028, it will not be achieved unless they address the extortionate cost and impracticality of installation. A poll by Liquid Gas UK discovered that more than two thirds of people living in off-grid rural homes fear that they would not be able to afford a heat pump if required to install one. The average cost of installing a low-carbon heating system such as a heat pump is estimated to be between £15,000 and £30,000. That probably includes the £5,000 grant, as installers are not going to ignore the subsidy, either. For many families, that is an expense that they simply cannot afford. Twelve per cent of houses in rural areas are in fuel poverty—a rate 43% higher than on-grid homes.

On top of the expensive cost of heat pumps, there is a lack of skilled engineers available to install and manage them. I recently received an email from a heating engineer who works in an off-gas grid area of Herefordshire. They are deeply concerned that the Government’s proposals are impractical because it is so expensive and difficult to install heat pumps. In rural areas, it will therefore be extremely difficult to source a nearby engineer to install a heat pump when one’s current oil boiler breaks.

Homeowners should have the freedom to choose their heating systems based on what suits their needs, preferences and budgets. Rather than installing an expensive heat pump, they might find it more suitable to have a hybrid or cocktail of alternative energy sources, such as biomass boilers, which are eligible for the Government’s renewable heat incentive—

--- Later in debate ---

[Amanda Solloway]

I confess to being a whisky drinker, so I feel a visit coming on, but that might not be allowed. Of course, I will look into that.

Transitioning rural, off-grid properties to low-carbon heat will help to move us off imported oil and build energy independence; help protect consumers from high and volatile energy bills; and keep us on track for net zero. However, I want to take this opportunity to reassure my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire that we recognise the challenges involved, which he has described so eloquently. Decarbonising rural, off-grid properties in a way that is fair, affordable and smooth for consumers will require a range of different technologies and policy approaches.

While we expect that most off-grid properties will ultimately switch to heat pumps, affordability is a key challenge that we need to address, particularly while the cost of installing a heat pump remains higher than the cost of replacing an oil system. That is why we are taking a range of steps to grow the heat pump market to 600,000 installations a year by 2028, and to make installing a heat pump a more attractive and affordable choice for heating a home. I acknowledge the challenge of building the skills that installers will need; I will take that point away and—with your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker—come back at a later date in a different manner. The steps we are taking include providing support through schemes such as the boiler upgrade scheme and home upgrade grant. We want to make sure that people make green choices.

As we take action, we want to ensure that the economic benefits of the transition to net zero are retained in the United Kingdom, which will create new, highly skilled jobs in the low-carbon economy. That is why we are investing £30 million in the heat pump investment accelerator, which will bring forward investment in heat pump supply chains and aim to ensure that at least 300,000 heat pumps are manufactured annually here in the UK by the end of the decade. I also take this opportunity to reassure my hon. Friend that no one will be required to install an unsuitable technology in their home or business. Heat pumps will not work everywhere—some off-grid properties are simply too poorly insulated or have certain characteristics that would make installing the technology challenging. We are therefore looking closely at the potential role of low-carbon heating solutions, such as high-temperature heat pumps, hybrid heat pumps, solid biomass or renewable liquid fuels. They could play a part in the low-carbon heating mix, particularly where heat pumps cannot be used. However, sustainable biomass is a limited resource, and we need to take care to prioritise its use in sectors that offer the greatest opportunity to reduce emissions and where there are the fewest alternative options to decarbonise.

There were some comments on the EPC, which is under a different Department, but I will take that away. However, I thoroughly believe we should always be looking at ways to improve methodology, and I am happy to have further conversations on that, if that is helpful. The forthcoming biomass strategy will review the amount of sustainable biomass available in the United Kingdom and consider how the resource could be best utilised across the economy to help achieve the Government’s net zero and wider environmental commitments. My hon. Friend also mentioned the consultation on the boiler ban. The Government have a commitment to transition to clean heat for the future. My hon. Friend asked me about a date, which I am unable to give at this stage, but I will look into that consultation and get back to him as soon as I can.

We will continue to work with industry stakeholders to build further evidence that will allow us to evaluate what roles these fuels may play in heat, especially where heat pumps cannot be used. Earlier this week, I visited Certas Energy, the UK’s largest distributor of heating oil. I thank it for supplying off-grid customers this winter. I also learned about its plans to transition to low-carbon renewable liquid fuels, and I will take away lots of points from that visit. Through the support we are providing, I assure my hon. Friend that we are acting and will continue to act to ensure that the transition to clean heat is smooth, fair and affordable for rural off-grid households and businesses.

[Greg Smith]

rose—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I think the Minister had finished. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will have a quick chat with the Minister afterwards—I can feel it.

Question put and agreed to.