“On Wednesday, we all waited to hear from the Prime Minister confirmation of all the leaked information from the preceding few days,” commented Simon Harris, CEO of facilities management business, Avrenim. “Was he really going to rip up the commitments made so emphatically on multiple occasions? Well I think we all agree that depending on your viewpoint the answer was yes, no, and kind of in a number of areas.”

“If I take five areas he spoke about and dive a little deeper to offer a view,” adds Harris:

  • Overarching commitment to climate action

He stated that none of his measures dilute the UK Government’s commitment to net zero, didn’t slow down the impetus to achieve the targets set and that the UK had been over delivering thus far.

Unfortunately for him the statutory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has previously published that the government was already off track to meet the fifth and sixth carbon budgets, running from 2028 to 2032 and 2033 to 2037. Any extension of time to comply with the measures in the plan only exacerbates the situation and therefore can do nothing but give the optic that the UK Government has weakened its commitment.

  • Abolishing new taxes and behaviour regulation

I’m sure like me you heard or read this claim and muttered to yourself “I don’t recall that ever being mentioned in election campaigns, etc. When were they going to tell us?” who knew that I was going to have car share, pay more tax on meat, more tax for a holiday and own seven bins! Turns out from my research online that none of these have ever been government policies or were about to become government policies to be implemented so we can breathe an extra sigh of relief! 

  • Boilers and Vehicles

He announced with some vigour that the 2030 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars – and gas boilers – would be pushed back to 2035. This gives very mixed messages to all concerned, be it the consumer, retailer, manufacturer and installer.

Heat pumps as an example when properly installed in a home with sufficient insulation, are already cheaper to run today than running a gas boiler, therefore benefitting the consumer and the environment simultaneously.

Any electric vehicle owners reading this will know that the infrastructure is sporadic to charge on journeys, limited coverage in relative terms, unreliable charge points and costs of charge increasing as part of the energy crisis. Is it any wonder that the ban of petrol and diesel vehicle sales was pushed back five years? This gives an opportunity for charging infrastructure and EV technology to evolve further, offering a seamless transition for the populous to migrate to an electric vehicle.

  • Costs to the consumer

Sunak said that costs of net zero for ordinary people and businesses were still too high to expect them to change. He went on to say that people who disagreed with him must explain why they want families to have to pay an extra £5,000, £10,000 or £15,000.

It is still unclear to me what he was referring to, but he may well have been referring to the cost of installing heat pumps over gas boilers. In my view, this was a sensationalist statement merely to support the shift in policy. However, we did then get an added benefit of £2,500 extra toward replacing a boiler with a heat pump. 

This means that we could be fitting a heat pump to an average UK home for only a £500 contribution from the householder! That has to be seen as positive. 

  • Underpinning the UK net zero ambitions

Sunak declared the following action to ensure that the UK could protect nature and enhance our energy security: 

  • The first ever spatial plan for energy infrastructure set out to give industry certainty over where it will be and give every community a say
  • A “fast track” through the nationally significant infrastructure project planning regime, available for major eligible transmission projects, to ensure they are prioritised, helping businesses and households connect to the grid sooner
  • A new approach to grid connections, where energy projects that are ready first will connect first – and ultimately get online quicker
  • The new Green Futures Fellowship, backed by a £150m endowment, to support at least 50 leading scientists and engineers to develop practical, breakthrough green technologies and climate change solutions over five years – building on the £1 billion invested into the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio

The above would lead to radical reforms in due course!

 In short, as is quite the norm when it comes to a political announcement on key policy and strategy, it’s difficult to unravel the true motivation for the change. In this instance, was this a cynical ploy to appeal to the voting public by relieving them of seemingly impending burdens that they couldn’t afford? 

What it most definitely does do is confuse industry across the board. Motor manufacturers have invested vast sums in new plants and technology to support the government policy which has now been extended. Those of us that operate within the renewables sector have to unravel the mixed message of we won’t force you to do anything but here is a 50% uplift in support to do the same thing.

My view is that the slow down was made for a politically motive but for a number of reasons could be viewed as pragmatic and the increase in funding eases more potential customers into the net zero journey.

For Avrenim, the key we wait to see more detail on is the pledges of changes to infrastructure and process to support net zero projects and not end them at the first hurdle that we have at times now. It only makes sense if it is achievable and in a lot of instances today there are still too many obstacles to achieve your net zero ambitions, but maybe not any more!