Heating Rural Homes

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Amanda Solloway)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Sir Bill Wiggin) for his impassioned speech. We have heard a lot from the rural champions who are here, so it is a great pleasure to be here. I point out that the issue is not in my portfolio; however, I will take back to the Department any question that I cannot answer, and will of course respond in due course to anybody I do not manage to respond to directly tonight. This is an incredibly important debate on heating rural homes. I thank my hon. Friend for our conversation earlier, in which he explained the problem.

Decarbonising off-gas-grid properties that use fossil fuel heating is a key priority for us, as they are some of our biggest polluters. The use of oil and other high-carbon fossil fuels to heat our properties also reinforces our dependence on foreign sources of energy. The Government recognise that off-gas-grid households have been particularly exposed to high and volatile energy bills, due to the impact of rising global fossil fuel prices following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. That is why we have taken decisive action to support rural households facing higher heating costs through the winter. The energy price guarantee is currently protecting customers from increasing energy costs by limiting the amount that suppliers can charge per unit of gas or electricity used. In addition, the alternative fuel payment scheme delivered £200 to households that use alternative fuels such as heating fuel, petroleum gas or biomass, helping around 2 million off-grid households across the United Kingdom.

Going forward, the Government intend to move away from universal energy bill support and towards better targeted support for those most in need. Therefore, to keep prices down for ordinary households in the long term, we need to make sure that we are relying on sources of energy that are affordable, clean and—above all—secure.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

The Minister is very gracious in giving way, and she is making a most interesting speech. Could I recommend to her something that would be helpful, namely whisky? In the rural community of Wick, in Caithness in my constituency, we have a distillery called Old Pulteney—it is an excellent whisky, but that is not the subject of this intervention. Old Pulteney helps to heat at least 200 houses in Wick, as well as Caithness General Hospital. It is an imaginative solution, so I suggest that the Minister looks at how that is done, takes herself on a tour of other distilleries that are not doing the same, and samples their wares for inner warmth, but also sees how they can contribute to outer warmth.

[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.