Paul Blacklock speech: Calor calls for fair deal for energy in rural communities

2 February 2012

Paul Blacklock praises Calor for paving the way for greener energy in rural Britain.

Good evening everybody.

I would of course like to start by thanking all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to come along to this event. I would particularly like to thank our sponsors graham stringer, Andrew George and Laura Sandys.

Calor is delighted to act as hosts as rural off gas grid Britain has all too often been forgotten in the debate about energy and climate change. This is why calor started its free rural fuel poverty programme in 2009 and I’m pleased to see representatives from our free partners – acre and nea – here tonight.

We believe that rural homes and businesses been seriously failed by previous energy policies. Two prime examples are cert and cesp:

• Cert has failed to reach rural Britain. Calor’s free programme has just finished surveying off gas grid villages and found an incredibly high proportion of respondees – more than 50 per cent in some places – from the priority and super priority groups who need work doing but who have never been approached.

• Cesp simply by-passed the countryside as the rules were written in such a way that it is virtually impossible for an off gas grid project to qualify.
We can not allow this to happen again. Calor welcomes the green deal and has already started to market renewables and insulation in readiness, but we – like acre – are concerned that the policy has not been rural proofed.

Evidence of this is provided by the likely direction of travel on energy performance certificates – epcs. The green deal has been built around epcs.

We have been raising concerns about epcs for over a decade. This is because epcs do not do what they say on the tin. They measure cost not energy. The a to g rating is driven by the base energy cost and as all off gas grid energies are expensive this means that rural buildings will always score at least one or two levels less than if the same house was in the centre of Manchester.

This is a major issue – especially when the government is proposing limiting solar pv fit payments to houses rated c or above. This basically cuts off the countryside from the very schemes aimed at reducing energy costs and rural fuel poverty. This can not be right.

We are also concerned by some of the proposals contained within the building regulations consultation launched yesterday. Rural housing and construction is already under severe pressure. A recent report found that it was much less affordable than in urban areas and with significantly fewer first-time buyers - accounting for only 27% of all buyers compared with 45% in urban areas.

There is a widely acknowledged shortage of affordable housing in rural areas. A report by the Halifax showed that house prices in the countryside are already 16% higher than in urban areas with average property prices £27,000 higher than in cities. Developing affordable housing is a crucial factor in the economic and social strength of rural communities, and it is a major contributor to long-term community sustainability.

We believe that the government’s proposals to make further changes to the building regulations, through the possible removal of the fuel factor, will create additional barriers to rural growth by adding many many thousands of pounds more to the cost of building a house in the countryside. As such the removal of the fuel factor will hit the 5 million people who live in rural Britain very hard.

We need to ensure a fair deal for energy in rural communities.

Thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of the reception.

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