Yorkshire Post: Net zero deadline unfair on off-grid rural areas – Jonathan Werran of Localis
We are witnessing an energy-driven cost of living crisis bring new levels of anxiety for households forced to prioritise between heating and eating or turning off the fridge and other life-supporting appliances .
This is particularly the case in our rural areas that aren’t connected to the mainline energy infrastructure system. In England there are 1.1 million homes off the gas grid that rely on fossil fuel heating, a figure which stretches to four million households – 15 per cent of the total – across the UK.
As things stand, homes and businesses in the countryside are guinea pigs in the decarbonisation drive. Homes off the mains gas grid are currently expected to end fossil fuel heating installation by 2026, nine years earlier than on-grid homes. Given the depth and scale of the net zero challenge, government cannot afford to push forward with its current all or nothing approach to rural home decarbonisation. This not only places an unfair and disproportionate burden on off-grid properties, but it also risks large scale failure in convincing households to take up the switch.
In our new, titled Reaching rural properties: off-grid heating in the transition to net zero, Localis argues that off-grid households should not be penalised for their location and that government should extend and make equal the 2035 deadline for all homes.
Simply put, four years is not sufficient time to improve the current heat pump market condition and get in place the improved incentive schemes that should be available to households.
To address this, the Localis report advocates that government should support a mix of low-carbon heating technologies to help grow the market, stimulate infrastructure investment and improve incentives for uptake.
Getting the message across to an uninformed general public will require active campaigns at national and local level. Localis is calling for an effective communications and engagement strategy to raise awareness of different low carbon options for the four million off-grid households across the UK.
And there’s a role we see for local government in making available funding for ‘fabric first’ enhancements to rural homes – using their knowledge of people and place to distribute monies efficiently and effectively.
The more overwhelming problem, however, is that our rural areas are totally unprepared for the widespread switch to electricity as a primary heating source.
Since this is the case, government must support the build of a programme of electricity infrastructure upgrades in rural areas into the national roadmap to net zero. The current Energy Performance Certificate methodology is not well-suited to application in off-grid homes. The government should review the EPC methodology with the aim of redressing the unequal impact on off-grid homes.
The current government strategy for decarbonising off-grid heating is a one-size-fits-all approach, which isn’t fit for purpose. It doesn’t consider the needs of homes and businesses in rural areas, or the complexity of heating rural properties, which are typically harder to heat and expensive to retrofit.
As part of this, a mixed technology approach needs to be adopted. One that provides a range of cost-effective options to consumers over different low carbon technologies and ‘drop in’ fuels including bioLPG. But most of all, there is a lot to be done at the level of place involving all the players on the pitch – local authorities, local business, further education colleges and skills providers.
At a local level, Localis argues that regional Heat Decarbonisation Hubs should be developed that bring together local state stakeholders including energy providers, neighbouring local authorities and installers. These should be collaborative efforts aimed at engaging with off-grid communities and raising awareness of the need for and importance of heat decarbonisation.
In as vital a domestic policy area as this, a policy which literally affects the hearths of countless homes, there is limited scope to backtrack and reheat policy.
It serves all our interests to work together and get this right first time.
Jonathan Werran is chief executive of independent think-tank Localis.