Exclusive polling conducted for the not-for-profit trade body Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), has confirmed that the cost-of-living crisis is hitting ‘Red Wall’ voters hard, with an astonishing 79 per cent saying the Government does not understand the financial pressures on working families. EUA and YouGov polled 1600 voters in 18 Red Wall constituencies across the north of England, covering seats won by the Conservatives for the first time in 2019 on a range of energy issues. The figures will put pressure on the Government to relieve the pressure of escalating energy bills. The joint poll also found that 80 per cent of Conservative voters in 2019 now believe the issue of energy bills to be important to them, with nearly 60 per cent stating that rising energy bills are having a big impact upon their personal finances. EUA’s analysis of the polling found that 17 of the 18 seats would switch back to Labour if there were to be an election now. The survey comes a few weeks away from a predicted £719 (56 per cent) increase in energy bills, as the Price Cap is reviewed, taking effect in April. Commenting on the findings, EUA’s Chief Executive Mike Foster said: “These numbers confirm just how deeply the cost-of-living crisis is hitting working families. And at the heart of this crisis are escalating energy bills. When there is such strong sentiment expressed by the public, the Government must listen. Sky-high energy bills are not the fault of consumers, but they are paying a heavy price. It is also very clear that politicians will pay a price for not tackling sky-high bills.” “In October, the average Price Cap bill rose by £140, another £700 is simply not affordable. Voters will expect action before April’s figures kick in. There is plenty the Government can do but in the short-term, their options are limited. Cutting VAT on energy bills and switching environment levies onto general taxation will help. They could increase the Winter Fuel Payment paid to pensioners too, but they do need to act.” “To provide long-term relief from high energy bills, the Government needs to prioritise energy efficiency measures such as insulation. It also needs to confirm its intention to switch away from fossil fuel gas to hydrogen for home heating. This will meet the UK’s net zero obligation without adding further financial burdens to consumers.” The constituencies polled as part of the research were: Barrow and Furness, Bishop Auckland, Blyth Valley, Burnley, Darlington, Don Valley, Great Grimsby, Hartlepool, Leigh, North West Durham, Penistone and Stocksbridge, Redcar, Rother Valley, Scunthorpe, Sedgefield, Stockton South, Wakefield, and Workington. For more information, visit the EUA’s website: https://eua.org.uk

Energy Assets Networks and Pipelines (EAN & P) have won grant funding from the Government’s Geospatial Commission to digitise their underground power and gas assets. EAN & P are one of two organisations operating in Greater London to have received funding, which is being distributed and managed by the Greater London Authority (GLA). The funding will enable EAN & P to vectorize and digitally share the position of their electricity cables and gas pipes across London’s boroughs. This data will help speed up residential and commercial development, reduce the risk of accidental pipe and cable strikes, and minimise the disruption to communities and traffic caused by new or emergency infrastructure works. The geospatial survey and data capture project will create a highly accurate digital map of the companies’ underground utility assets across the capital and will feed into the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) being built by the Geospatial Commission for the UK. “As an independent distribution network operator and an independent gas transporter, we work closely with contractors building out residential and commercial developments,” said Andrew Collin, EAP’s Network Manager. “One of the biggest challenges our customers face is identifying the precise location of existing infrastructure, so this new digitized and shared asset register will provide the detail they need to plan and install utility networks much more efficiently. This resource will also help minimise the disruption to communities caused by emergency repair work or the laying of additional infrastructure by pinpointing existing pipes and cables within a range of a few centimetres.” The grant funding, won in a competitive bid process, will support the vectorization of existing EAN & P assets by specialist partner Graitec and the provision of geospatial technology and training by MGISS. Once EAN & P have completed the vectorization work across the London boroughs, the businesses aim to extend the work to map their utility assets across the rest of Britain – and then adopt a ‘Vector First’ approach by capturing geospatial data as assets are built out. Nigel Clifford, Deputy Chair of the Geospatial Commission commented: “Unlocking value from geospatial data is the heart of the UK’s Geospatial Strategy. Our National Underground Asset Register will be a momentous step towards providing the UK with a shared national data asset of significant value. I am proud of the collaboration with industry that we have so far established as part of our preparatory work and look forward to it continuing.” EAN & P are responsible for the ownership and management of many thousands of final mile electricity and gas connections across the country. The companies, part of the Energy Assets Group, are among the fastest-growing local energy network owners in Britain, with a reputation for digital innovation in support of a growing customer base of accredited connections providers, housebuilders, commercial developers and EV charging network owners.  https://www.energyassetspipelines.co.uk

A new green energy report, published by the not-for-profit body Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), finds customers are typically facing a five-fold cost increase to install a heat pump, compared to a hydrogen-ready boiler. Households can currently expect to pay up to £15,000 for transition to a heat pump depending on the property type, compared to less than £3,000 for a hydrogen-ready boiler. In addition to the higher cost of the heat pump itself, the disparity is largely due to the additional energy efficiency measures needed to enable a heat pump to operate efficiently, plus the need to fit a hot water cylinder and new radiators. Some homes also require new internal pipework. In its recent Heat and Buildings Strategy, the UK Government set an ambitious cost reduction target for heat pumps to reach cost parity with gas boilers by the end of the decade, with 25-50% of the reduction achieved by 2025. To support the initial upfront costs, the Government is offering consumers £5,000 grants for the installation of heat pumps, yet the allocated funding is only enough to support 30,000 heat pump installations per annum for three years – this equates to just 5% of the annual installation target of 600k heat pumps per year by 2028. For the first time this report gives clarity for customers considering the switch to greener energy and is the first in a series which will track the progress towards the Government’s cost reduction target. Introducing the green energy report, Mike Foster, CEO of Energy and Utilities Alliance said: “We need to decarbonise homes if we are to meet our Net Zero ambitions but consumers simply do not have the cash to pay for the high upfront costs of many low carbon heating options. The recent Heat and Building Strategy is right to demand massive reductions in the cost of heat pumps, which according to this report can cost consumers up to seven times that of a simple boiler switch. “Many heating industry experts are sceptical that the scale of the cost reduction can be achieved, with the claim that heat pump costs will be at parity with gas boilers by April next year, as simply implausible. “Regardless of what happens in the heat pump market, it is increasingly clear that they are not a like-for-like replacement of a gas boiler. Consumers will face considerable disruption, cost and the need for behavioural change to retrofit their homes with a heat pump. “It is recognised that the majority of UK homes are simply not suitable for heat pumps. When an existing boiler needs replacing, installing a hydrogen-ready version, at no extra cost, means that a householder can switch over to clean burning hydrogen when it’s available in the network.” There is no silver bullet to tackle the challenging target of achieving Net Zero by 2050 and every energy solution will be needed to play its part. The report highlights that the costs of transitioning to cleaner energy can vary vastly in different homes, dependent on the fabric of the building and whether there are any energy efficiency measures in place. It is therefore vital that customers understand the options available to them so they can make the best decision. This will help to ensure an affordable and fair energy transition for everyone. Mike Foster concludes: “We urge the government to expedite a decision to mandate hydrogen ready boilers so that when a boiler reaches the end of its natural life it can replaced which one which is future proof. The UK’s leading boiler manufacturers have made a promise that the hydrogen-ready boilers can be produced at the equivalent cost of today’s natural gas equivalents and with the products already developed they are ready to start manufacturing.”

Fresh from allegations that Whitehall officials are blocking Boris Johnson’s hydrogen plans, it now appears that officials are planning to embarrass the Prime Minister by adopting the much ridiculed industrial policy that gave the EU “milk lakes” and “butter mountains”. Hidden in the detail of the recently published Heat and Buildings Strategy, officials at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are plotting to force British heating appliance manufacturers to make heat pumps, regardless of whether the public want to buy them or not. Under what is known as the “market mechanism” current boiler manufacturers will be told by Whitehall officials how many heat pumps they need to make or risk being heavily fined if they don’t obey the instruction. Similar policies adopted by the EU in the past, led to excess supply over demand and the obscene creation of wine lakes and butter mountains. “This is the most un-Conservative industrial policy I have ever seen. To force successful British businesses to make what Whitehall officials want, rather than what consumers want, is an extraordinary degree of state-meddling,” said Mike Foster CEO of Energy and Utilities Alliance. “If consumers want heat pumps, then these manufacturing businesses will make and sell them. But to be fined for not selling something the public currently don’t want is bizarre, more so when Cabinet Minsters accept that heat pumps aren’t yet ready for the mass market. It is almost as if Whitehall officials are deliberately trying to embarrass the Prime Minister by using the tactics he has previously derided the EU for using. It’s the Revenge of the Remainers within BEIS.” “But the most disturbing aspect of this policy is the sheer lack of understanding in how markets work. If the Government want heat pumps installed, it needs to make them more attractive to consumers. According to the PM, they cost ‘ten grand a pop,’ well beyond the reach of most. People can’t afford them. Without consumer demand, business won’t supply products for fear of creating a mountain of unsold heat pumps filling warehouses across the land, all because Whitehall thinks it knows best,” Mike concluded.

Back in 2012, the English Housing Survey took an in-depth look at the energy efficiency of the country’s housing stock. It found that social housing was leading the field, with an average Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating of 65, compared to just 57 for the private rented sector. The most recent English Housing Survey to provide a snapshot of energy efficiency is the 2019-20 report. It found that energy efficiency had improved over the preceding decade, with the proportion of dwellings in the highest EER bands (A to C), rising from 12% to 40% between 2009 and 2019. Social rented homes continued to be the best performers, with 61% in bands A to C in 2019, compared to just 38% of homes in the private rented sector. The average cost to move a property from EER bands D to G up to a band C rating was estimated to be £8,110. The cost varied across tenure, from the cheapest being housing association dwellings (with an average of £5,910) to the most expensive being owner occupied homes (£8,579). Just 2% of properties were found to be unable to reach band C at all. With an average annual energy cost saving of £298 because of upgrading a home to band C, it would take the average property over 27 years to start benefitting financially from doing so. Hence the need for government incentives to speed up the upgrading of English homes’ energy performance. Heat pumps are an interesting example of this. In 2019, just 103,000 homes in England had a heat pump – well below 1% of total housing stock. The government has now announced a £5,000-per-household grant to encourage the installation of heat pumps. However, that will cover the installation of just 30,000 heat pumps per year. How the government target of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 is to be met remains unclear. Some of those likely to be near the front of the queue for the new heat pump grants are England’s landlords, as all new tenancies will require an EPC rating of band C or higher by 2025. Proptech investment platform houzen is supporting landlords and owner-occupiers alike to reach band C or higher with its in-depth sustainability reports. The tech-driven reports provide owners with the means to see quickly and easily how their properties measure up in terms of their environmental impact, as well as how they can enhance their sustainability. They blend expert knowledge with AI and Computer Vision to consider how homes perform in respect of 27 measures that impact the climate.