Heating Rural Homes

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Scott Mann.)

It is a great pleasure to be able to address this important issue. We all want to beat climate change, cut emissions and leave the planet in a better condition than we found it, so we do need to address the challenge of heating rural homes. It is perhaps ironic that we should be discussing this topic during a heatwave, but

“pleasant as it may be to bask in the warmth of recovery… The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”.

As North Herefordshire is a rural constituency, I urge the Government to ensure that there is an equitable solution for heating rural homes. Around 1.1 million homes in England are not connected to the gas grid and currently use some of the most carbon-intensive heating fuels, such as oil and coal. Some rural homes do not even have the option of an electricity supply.

In the past year, we have seen the price of fuel fluctuate wildly due to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine. In the wake of the invasion, heating oil hit an unprecedented 110 pence a litre, well over double the regular cost.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate and on highlighting how different rural areas are from urban areas. As he mentioned, so many households —up to 76%—are off grid and on things like heating oil. Does he agree that decisions made in urban Whitehall need to understand that rural areas are different? Some well-intentioned schemes, such as the sustainable warmth scheme, have not worked well in practice. There needs to be flexibility in these policies so that, when we talk about phasing out heating oil or, indeed, phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles—things that are so vital to rural areas—we can make sure the Government listen to rural areas.

My hon. Friend is a rural champion, like myself. With his background in animal welfare, he feels the beat of the countryside in his veins. He is absolutely right about having that rural priority for vital things such as climate change, where we all want the right things. We all want to do the best we can for our constituents, but what works in inner London is so different from that which would affect his constituents, those in Brecon and Radnorshire, or the wonderful people of North Herefordshire.

As I said, the fuel price hit an unprecedented 110 pence per litre, double the regular cost, or even more. The Government moved commendably quickly to help secure our energy supply and to protect consumers through the energy price guarantee. However, for those off grid, that support was not forthcoming. The energy price guarantee ensured that gas and electricity bills were capped at about half of what they could have been, but those using alternative fuels received a £200 payment and there was no cap on the price. As a result, they were subjected to massive price increases, with little to safeguard them from factors completely out of their control. During this period, I received emails from people in Herefordshire whose houses are off the mains grid and who were deeply concerned by the rapidly increasing price of alternative fuel.

With the UK target of reaching net zero by 2050 in mind, the Government are pursuing a heat pump-led approach to secure energy independence for the UK. Their well-meaning boiler ban, set to take effect in 2026, will force homeowners to replace their gas and oil boilers with low-carbon alternatives. Although that ban may be well-intentioned and appears to align with the target of reaching net zero by 2050, we have forgotten the impracticality of such a ban for those people living off grid. With 75% of rural properties off the gas grid, these homeowners rely on alternative heating methods. Of all the off-grid homes in the UK, 55% are heated with heating oil, just 18% with electricity, 11% with solid fuel and 10% with liquid petroleum gas. That means that 76% of off-grid households will soon have to replace their heating systems.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate for the 15% of households in my constituency who are off the gas grid. Does he agree that the best way the Government could rise to the challenge he is powerfully making is to adopt the proposal from my right hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice) to permit the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil and other sustainable fuels in existing oil burners and indeed new oil-burning boilers, so that customers and residents of all our constituencies are not forced to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a technology that may not actually work?

All I can say is that those 15% of my hon. Friend’s constituents are lucky to have such a champion in their MP—what a hero for rural sensibility. We are truly blessed to have an intervention such as that. Later in my speech, I may touch on the subject of HVO. What he is saying is absolutely right. We need to be much broader in our outlook about what works for people, not through force, but through choice, so that the people who want to do the right thing can do so, rather than being curmudgeonly bullied—

On that point, I will give way to my former Whip Friend.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I should perhaps declare an interest, as someone who owns a house that is also heated by oil-fired central heating, however inadequately. The point he makes illustrates well what happens when Government intervene to set targets and to insist that things must be done by a certain deadline. We see that time and again. I can tell him and others now that one of the biggest problems will be the lack of available skilled, qualified labour in rural areas and in other places to install the equipment for these things. Would it not be better if on this occasion we were to use a little more of the carrot and a little less of the stick, as he and I did when we were Whips together?

Indeed, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is no finer advocate of the pointy carrot than the right hon. Gentleman. But he is right. Again, it is as though he has read my speech because I will touch on the shortage of qualified technicians. One of the problems that we face is that, by insisting on one technology, all those various engineers who can do different things are being forced to do the same thing and, of course, that is far from practical or ideal. I will touch on that in a moment.

Those off the gas grid may face unique challenges that will prove a huge obstacle if the ban comes in. According to the Government’s heat and buildings strategy, at least 20% of off-grid homes will not be suitable for heat pumps. Rural areas tend to have limited infrastructure, meaning that it is impractical and uneconomical to deploy heat pump installations in every home. Many rural homes, particularly older or listed buildings, are not designed to accommodate these systems. Heat pumps work best in well-insulated and energy-efficient properties, which rural homes, sadly, tend not to be.

More than 35% of rural properties have an energy efficiency rating of F or G, compared with just 2.1% of properties in urban areas. That is a massive difference. In part, that is because properties located in these areas are proportionately more likely to be older, of traditional construction, detached and potentially larger than urban properties. But it is also because the current stupid, useless and inappropriate energy performance certificate assessment is based on modern construction. More than 60% of homes were built before 1970 and before the first thermal regulations, so these properties are extremely disadvantaged when it comes to energy efficiency ratings.

On the issue of the flawed nature of EPC, that is an important point. My hon. Friend will be aware that thatched buildings are often given a very low EPC rating because there is no ability to calculate the thermal quality of thatch. Thatch is a brilliant insulating material, so it is complete nonsense that thatched buildings should be given such low rating. This would be of passing interest were it not also the case that the Government are rapidly bringing forward legislation to prevent landlords from renting out properties if they have a low EPC rating. On that point, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. There are also reports from the Department that it will in future be more difficult to get a mortgage if a property has a low EPC rating, with the voluntary code being suggested to the current clearing banks later to become a compulsory code. In many areas of the countryside, the net effect of that policy will be that someone will have zero chance of getting a mortgage unless these ridiculous EPC ratings and mechanisms are updated.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I saw you thinking that that was perhaps a bit of a long intervention, but it was pure gold. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: these energy performance certificates are not just stupid and useless, but absolutely evil when it comes to the fundamental right of people to want to own their own homes—something in which we on the Conservative Benches believe passionately. Worse than that, if someone cannot get an EPC rating of C, they cannot rent a house either. All of this will be no different from the land clearances, when people were shipped off into the cities because they simply could not or were not allowed to live in the countryside. It is an appalling situation and my right hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight it. I hope the Minister is trembling on the Front Bench at the vehemence of loathing that I have for EPCs, not least because, when I last got one, it said that we should have built a windmill in the garden. How stupid can you get when it comes to really mindless environmental legislation. I care very much about this because, if we are going to do a good job of saving the planet, we cannot be handicapped by cretinous legislation such as EPCs. I ask the Minister to please fix it.

To go back to the speech in hand, we have covered traditional features in old homes. Indeed, it is even more troublesome and expensive to retrofit a listed building, of which there are around 500,000 in England. They have solid floors and walls and are much more difficult to rectify. The House will be aware of the debates I have held on environmental standards for listed buildings and the most welcome progress that was made to allow double glazing by Historic England—a small step, one might think, but to have 500,000 houses in this country banned from having double glazing just reinforces why I rage at EPCs. There are all the other environmental steps that we want to take but are banned from taking.

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I would be delighted to give way to my hon. Friend; I have hardly started.

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way twice. Does he agree that many of the houses that are challenged by the EPC regime simply cannot have the retrofitting he talks about, such as those built out of cob or witchert, a form of cob unique to the Vale of Aylesbury—to declare an interest, my own house is partially made out of witchert—where the walls need to breathe? Therefore, people cannot put in place the measures that would allow a higher EPC rating or allow a heat pump to work in the first place.

I feel for my hon. Friend. When we buy a washing machine or dishwasher and look at the energy rating on it, it is a helpful guide to what we should expect our fuel bills to be. However, the EPCs for houses are off the scale in their inability to provide anything useful and I am mustard-keen for the Minister to tackle them.

My fear is that Historic England, that wonderful body that has been trying to make Leominster a nicer place, may go back on its guidance on double glazing and on the curtilage of listed buildings. That would be a shame because, while there is an industry built up with secondary glazing, it is really important that as a Government we help people to do the right thing. Something that saves energy, improves fuel efficiency and makes houses nicer places to live in is obviously a sensible step.

I am sure the Minister does not find it hard to see why the boiler upgrade scheme has been such a disappointment. Tragically, £90 million-worth of subsidy is being given back to the Treasury due to the difficulty of uptake. The Government’s latest scheme offers households grants of between £5,000 and £6,000 for low-carbon heating systems such as heat pumps—kind, well-meaning and hopelessly inappropriate. Ofgem figures show that fewer than 10,000 installations were completed under the scheme between its launch in May last year and March this year.

Households with a broken boiler could wait up to six months to source a certified installer, as the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) said, receive a grant, if they are lucky, purchase the heat pump, if it is available, and have it installed, by which time they may have suffered without heating during the coldest months of the year. That is never going to deliver on our ambitions, not least because every broken boiler is a missed opportunity. It means people will go out and buy another fossil fuel boiler because the option to buy a heat pump was just too difficult.

Not any more.