According to the Minister for Energy Consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh, “All families deserve the security of a home they can afford to heat.” This statement was included in an update to the Government’s extremely long-winded update to its Warm Homes Plan policy, published on Thursday. The policy is not unexpected, and promises to “help people find ways to save money on energy bills and deliver warmer, cleaner to heat homes [sic]”, adding that “up to 300,000 homes [are] to benefit from upgrades next year”. But there is a problem with Fahnbulleh’s formulation. If the Government is so concerned to give people what they “deserve”, why is it taking so much away from them?
The alleged benefits of this policy are pretty weak beer. For example, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the Government claims, will “support more households switch [sic] to a heat pump”. Great. But what are the benefits? Well, according to the same press release, families can save “around £100 a year compared to a gas boiler by using a smart tariff effectively”. For this, the Government will stump up a £7,500 heat pump grant – money taken from other taxpayers – leaving the homeowner with the remaining roughly equal sum. And in case that is not clear, a £100 saving per year on even just a £7,500 outlay is an extremely poor return on investment, even were the other part of the cost actually free magic money. It would take 75 years to 'pay for itself', assuming 0%
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We currently have a condensing modern (5 year old) gas boiler, heats our small bungalow very cheaply. There’s no gas to the kitchen so an induction hob was installed as being energy efficient. I’m about to have it ripped out and have a gashob installed, at least then we can cook and boil water for a hot water bottle! Yes we’re pensioners who have modest savings so are excluded from the WFA. 🤬
Most expensive energy and housing in the world and the crappest wages and worst conditions of any job market in the western world. Sucked from both ends as it were. Leave it alone. Don’t let those decadent prats rule your life.
They want us cold, poor and undernourished. It makes us less capable of fighting back.
Personally, I am terrified by the future plans of this socialist scumbag Government. Let’s look at what has happened so far. The WFA was removed with the statement that those in hardship could still get it by applying for pension credit. The cost of the advertising for this, all of the letters being sent out in duplicate and sometimes triplicate to tell everyone about this, the cost of processing all of the new pension credit applications, both the accepted and rejected, must have been a fortune, before even allowing for the cost of paying all of those extra agreed pension credits. My mother in law does not get full pension, less than £7,000 but because she is prudent and worries about replacing things like her boiler, cooker etc., had built up a savings account just above the allowed limit, so had her pension credit withdrawn and a demand to repay the previous payments.
So why I ask myself have they implemented something so unpopular that actually is costing more to put in place than the previous scheme. Only one reason, they want to identify all of the genuine pensioners in need, my mother in law not being one of them,… Read more »
They’re after your house.
Politicians Freeze You for Net Zero
So… people will pay £7 500 less for a heat pump, but £7 500 more in taxes – just they won’t notice the latter because it will be paid for by reduced public services, and the stealth tax which comes with debt and money printing which debauches the currency reducing its purchase power.
Shhhh don’t tell anyone what’s happening behind the curtains!
Who are those 2 Bozo’s in the picture please ????
The phrase that sticks out for me is about a heat pump household saving “around £100 a year compared to a gas boiler by using a smart tariff effectively”. Basically, we’re back to the old days of storage heaters, where they’d warm up on the Economy 7 tariff overnight when everyone was tucked up in bed, and then keep everyone warm over breakfast time. By the time you returned home at the end of the day, the heat was virtually all spent and you had to turn on an electric fire (or a gas fire, which you were still allowed to have in those days) to heat one room until bedtime.
This all fits in with the idea of the population being forced to use electricity when it’s plentiful and being priced out of using it at peak times which, coincidentally, are the hours of the day we’re actually up and about.
However if EV adoption ever goes anywhere near the levels they want, overnight electricity won’t be plentiful at all… model broken
The last conversation on Five Live was…’Should we ban Wood Stoves’.Fair play there were people talking common sense, like what id there is Blackouts because of Agenda 2030 etc. Others made the attacks on food etc. But what a good time to have that conversation. In the News they mentioned the rise in Energy prices and we just had snow LOL.
It’s almost like, but not quite the same, as the Al Gore Effect: whenever there is a COP jamboree, the news is of snow. Strictly speaking, to be the true AGE, the snow should be where the conference is. IIRC Copenhagen COP was one such occurrence.
If you want to ensure people can heat their homes the remove the ‘Green’ extras in the cost of energy and make the VAT rate zero. Job done and no extra fossil fuels consumed.
Although it has to be noted that a Labour government is reluctant to give up any taxes – it’s their money after all [sarcasm].
Removing the subsidies and carbon tax and allow a free market in wholesale energy prices would do it without removing VAT.
This is the way it was before the Net Zero nonsense.
The government is like an highly dysfunctional, abusive set of parents who just screw everything up but still insist on being respected.
At least in the US they seem to have gotten fed up and might start cleaning up a bit.
I wish we’d do the same over here.
The Lab/Con/Lib/SNP Uniparty disenfranchises and oppresses the people.
“according to the same press release, families can save “around £100 a year compared to a gas boiler by using a smart tariff effectively”.
£100 is nothing more than two quiet nights out these days, and that’s me on my own. It really is neither here nor there. Grotesquely insulting.
It’s a bit like the reality behind WFA. The £300 allowance is now so out of date as to be almost worthless. I suspect the real value of WFA should now be in the region of £1,000 if it was to retain its worth.
The saving being from not using electricity.
It’s like saving on food bills by not eating, or petrol cost by not driving.
Codswallop!
Reality: 4 kw per hour 24-7 and a mediocre 35C° maximum output
That’s assuming the electricity stays on!
All electric future = eggs in one basket!
Fu#k em, I’m keeping my log/coal/furniture burner!
There is a mountain of waste paper lying around in Westminster which might also be of some use in your woodburner. Too bad it makes so much ash…The wholesale prices of gas and electricity are miles away from the Price Cap levels – we are being fleeced, who is benefitting?
The “runinables” energy suppliers in subsidies to make their non-viable, intermittency businesses able to make ‘profits’ and distribute dividends to share holders. That’s who.