Federation of Petroleum Suppliers (FPS) chief executive, Guy Pulham and OFTEC CEO Paul Rose said: 'A wide range of responses to Government's call for evidence were received but the conclusions drawn in the document highlighted BEIS' continued focus on the electrification of heat using heat pumps.

'We believe this approach will not provide a complete solution and does not consider several recent developments in Europe which highlight how liquid fuels, whether that is a bio fuel or an efuel, can be part of the solution. There is a need for a mix of low-emission energy sources and technologies to be deployed to meet the requirements of different buildings, dependent on their potential thermal efficiency.

'The Call for Evidence ended in June this year and since then the FPS has, in partnership with OFTEC and other trade associations in the UK and Europe, been working together to promote the introduction of a renewable, low carbon liquid fuel for off grid households, which would not require a complete change of infrastructure.

'We believe this should play a major role in meeting the future heating needs of off grid homes and it is a mistake to focus so much on electric solutions which offer high cost/low efficiency solutions for the 1.5m households off grid households currently using oil in the UK. Several demonstration projects with heating systems running on partly renewable liquid fuels are already in place across Europe, achieving substantial levels of emissions reduction. So, it is disappointing that this potential is not more positively promoted in the Government's response.