Heat policy update

The government’s decision to launch its consultation on the role of alternative clean heating solutions last November, was an important milestone for our industry and a vindication for our lobbying efforts – we have long campaigned for a consultation about the use of renewable liquid heating fuels.

It was also a priceless opportunity to ensure the voice of oil heating users and people working inside the industry was heard by DESNZ.

We created simple template consultation responses to make it as easy as possible for people to join in. We then launched a new phase of the Future Ready Fuel campaign to encourage oil heating users, heating technicians and fuel suppliers to submit supportive responses. We backed this up with news releases and Facebook social media advertising carefully targeted to rural areas.

We also wrote to over 600 rural parish councils asking them to include information in newsletters, and engaged with rural MPs across the political spectrum.

The government often evaluates consultations on the basis of the number of positive or negative responses it receives to each question, so getting a high number of positive responses is important.

The campaign was an outstanding success:

• 16,000 supportive consultation responses were generated – 85% from consumers.
• The response heatmap shows excellent participation in most target areas.
• A delegation from Cornwall submitted their response in person and met Lord Whitehead, a DESNZ minister (see separate article on pages 8 & 9).
• Over 100 pieces of consumer media coverage were achieved.
• Rural Labour MPs submitted a supportive joint response, and the Plaid Cymru Westminster group, Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party and Liberal Democrats all submitted supportive responses.

Thank you to everyone who supported the campaign and helped us achieve this hugely positive outcome.

Next steps – when will renewable liquid fuels like HVO be supported?

While it was good that the government has undertaken this consultation, it must also be said that it was far from perfect. It was launched too late to influence the government’s Warm Homes Plan, yet contained questions about some technologies that are already being actively supported by the government.

Some of the assumptions were also questionable, and OFTEC and UKIFDA met with officials to discuss concerns and wrote to DESNZ to highlight several issues that we think could potentially mislead respondents.

With the exception of renewable liquid heating fuels, the most striking thing about the consultation was how expensive the other options were to install and, in many cases run – far more than an oil boiler.

This only strengthens our view that fuels like HVO are the right option for many oil heated homes, and OFTEC submitted a comprehensive response on behalf of industry.

The big question is what happens next?

The government has so far been less than enthusiastic about supporting the use of renewable liquid heating fuels, talking about “making decisions later this decade on the role renewable liquid fuels like HVO could play in the future heating mix”. This despite industry being ready to deploy them now.

In its new Warm Homes Plan (see page 17) DESNZ reasserts its view that most homes will eventually convert to a heat pump, despite ongoing concerns about cost and practical challenges, particularly in older buildings which make up around half of the rural off-gas grid housing stock. So, for our industry, there’s still much work to do.

OFTEC’s view remains that the government needs to accept that off-gas grid homes are different, and that more affordable and less disruptive choices are needed. That means, alongside heat pumps, renewable liquid heating fuels must be one of the options available.

The consultation has generated an unprecedented level of support for this to happen. Most government consultations about heating generate a few hundred responses at the most. We know that at least 16,000 positive responses were submitted and the government must now listen to these views and act quickly, not kick the can down the road.

Over the next six months we intend to put maximum pressure on the government to take the steps needed to implement a fuel obligation and change the duty on HVO to make it more affordable. With these simple changes, there’s no reason why a 20% fuel blend can’t be introduced THIS YEAR. So, our motto going forward is: HVO by Christmas!

We may need your help again as the next phase of our campaign takes shape over the summer, so please look out for further updates.

Malcolm Farrow