Alistair Darling missed an opportunity to tackle both fuel poverty and energy efficiency in last month's Budget, says Mark Wilkins of Vaillant
Chancellor Alistair Darling was simply 'tinkering at the edges' of energy conservation in his first Budget when what we urgently need are bold initiatives.
His announcement to extend the zero-carbon target to non-domestic buildings was widely welcomed. But the fact this will not apply until 2019 has added to a growing sense that we are leaving our climate change mitigation efforts too late.
The UK Green Building Council has already warned him that time is running out because little progress is being made on reducing the carbon footprint of the existing building stock. More than 80% of the buildings we will be using in 2050 are already built - tackling their performance has to be the main priority.
Pensioners will no doubt welcome the extra money allocated in their winter fuel allowance - increased to £250 for over-60s and to £400 for the over-80s. But there is a real danger that the chancellor is just throwing good money after bad.
'What we really want is an energy efficiency package,' said a Help the Aged spokesman in the wake of the chancellor's less than sparkling debut. 'We shouldn't be encouraging people to burn more fuel in what should be a greener world.'
The reality is that the increased grant will be largely swallowed up by rising fuel prices, arguably further lining the pockets of the utility companies.
Most observers say a better strategy would be to target energy-saving measures in pensioners' homes such as upgrading boilers, cylinders and heating controls, fitting better loft and cavity wall insulation, paying for double glazing and so on.
The inability of politicians and civil servants to make the obvious link between fuel poverty and energy efficiency is a continuing source of amazement to the heating industry. Reducing demand and providing more from renewable sources could pull millions of citizens out of fuel poverty without the need for top up payments that do little more than paper over the cracks.
Local councils should be encouraged to push up targeted incentives for insulation and the fitting of renewables to tackle both ends of the problem. Many have initiatives in this area, but these are also little more than tinkering - £100 towards cavity wall insulation with little idea of how much the resident may have to pay overall is not going to generate a mass response.
Likewise, householders are looking for a reasonable payback period on renewables. Therefore, more generous support - that is not fiendishly difficult to claim like the Low Carbon Buildings Programme - would soften the initial financial pain and increase uptake.
Solar collectors can generate 50% of the average family's annual hot water, which offers the potential to make an enormous dent in the UK's overall carbon emissions.
It might seem hard to believe during a wet British summer, but meteorologists insist that the UK climate is ideal for solar heating. The Met Office says we enjoy about 60% of the sunlight experienced at the Equator.
According to solar installation guidance issued by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, a high-radiation summer day in the South of England provides 7-9kWh of solar energy per square metre of collector area.
Assuming 50% efficiency with a flat plate collector, you could expect 3.5-4.5kWh to be collected as useful heat enough to provide about 70 litres of hot water.
A 4m2 array will, therefore, produce around 1,500kWh a year and reduce the amount of heating fuel used to produce hot water by between 40-60% compared with conventional heating systems.
However, the skills issue is a potential stumbling block. While there is nothing daunting about the basics of solar installation, any new renewable system must be properly integrated with existing heating to deliver its full potential.
This means the system designer and installer must have an in-depth knowledge of how conventional services work, and how the renewable system can be designed to work in partnership with condensing boilers, for example.
If you understand British domestic central heating and all its vagaries, you have a much better chance of delivering a solar thermal solution that integrates correctly and provides a meaningful amount of hot water at minimal carbon penalty.
The government at both national and local level must also, therefore, ensure there is adequate backing for the Competent Person Schemes now in operation across the industry to ensure only properly trained installers are working in this market. Pensioners, in particular, need protection from rogue traders.
These issues are all connected. There is a clear link between the skill of heating engineers and the ability of the country to pull large chunks of its population out of fuel poverty.
It is a scandal that one of the world's richest countries still allows hundreds of its citizens to die from the cold during the winter, and that our carbon emissions from heating continue to rise. This is especially the case considering we have the means and the money to do something about it.
www.vaillant.co.uk