Politics
The ‘Net Zero’ boiler ban will leave Britain’s poorest out in the cold
HOMEOWNERS could be forced to pay thousands to replace their gas boilers as ministers move to ban them within 14 years.
The policy will be at the centre of Net Zero plans to be unveiled in the coming months as the UK attempts to go carbon neutral by 2050.
Ministers are moving to ban gas boilers within 14 years[/caption]
Almost a third of the nation’s carbon emissions come from home heating systems. Yet replacements such as eco-friendly heat pumps typically cost at least £10,000.
Households may be hit with “financial penalties” if they don’t replace their old gas boilers with the expensive green alternatives.
Here Steve Baker, Tory MP for Wycombe and former Brexit minister, warns that by pursuing the policy the Conservatives could be facing a crisis bigger than the 1989 Poll Tax which led to unrest.
THE cost of Net Zero is beginning to bite as the mind-boggling scale of transformation planned by ministers becomes plain.
I couldn’t believe my eyes this week when I read about the Government’s plan to fine people for having gas boilers.
Gas is the cheapest way to heat a home, and its widespread use has improved the wellbeing of millions of people in recent decades. As so often, progress has turned a luxury into a necessity many of us take for granted.
But now ministers plan to end the comfortable lifestyles we have enjoyed for generations.
Downing Street has backed down on the idea of fines, but it still appears the Government will implement other penalties to force people to change how they heat their homes.
The process is going to hit everyone but let us be under no illusion, the poorest will pay the highest price for these carbon neutral fantasies.
The most likely alternative to a gas boiler is an electric heat pump. They can easily set you back more than £10,000 to install.
If you live in an older property, you might well have to spend many thousands more on fitting enough insulation to make a heat pump viable.
You may even need to change floor levels to make it all work.
Replacing your gas boiler with an electric heat pump could set you back more than £10,000[/caption]
And once you have spent all that money, your house may well be colder than before.
Heating is just one aspect of the Government’s plans to reduce our carbon emissions to Net Zero.
This radical programme is expected to affect almost every aspect of life in the UK. Many of the changes will be wildly expensive.
Up until now, the costs have been largely hidden, or at least bearable, but that is not going to be the case for much longer.
The furore over heat pumps makes that clear — the costs of Net Zero are rising quickly.
Take the electricity system, for example. We have been pouring subsidies into unreliable wind farms for nearly 20 years now.
Every UK household is now paying approximately £400 per year to renewables companies, either through surcharges on bills or through higher prices in the shops.
Some big wind farms will soon be receiving half a billion pounds in subsidy each and every year.
As a result, electricity prices have nearly doubled in the past 20 years.
We can expect those prices to more than double again in coming decades, hitting you and your family hard.
PATH TO POVERTY
On top of that, the Government wants us all to switch to electric cars, which usually cost £10,000 more than their petrol equivalents but are much less convenient.
For those without off-street parking, personal transport may become a thing of the past.
Experts at KPMG accountants predict that private car ownership could in future fall to less than half the current level.
Policymakers have not been up front about the cost for working families[/caption]
Boris Johnson cannot force the public into buying expensive, ineffective heating[/caption]
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It won’t be the rich going without the convenience and pleasure of their own transport for their own families.
And all this spending won’t mean you can live your life in comfort.
The dirty secret of Net Zero is that there will be no way to generate electricity when the wind isn’t blowing.
Ministers like to talk about grid-scale battery storage, but engineers know that idea is nonsense — batteries are good for supplying power to the grid for a few hours, rather than days or weeks.
Meanwhile, hydrogen for fuel cells is wildly expensive and it may well prove too dangerous to use in practice.
Without any means of storing electricity, a drop in the wind could be catastrophic.
The dirty secret of Net Zero is that there will be no way to generate electricity when the wind isn’t blowing.
If we experience a three-week lull, like the one we saw during April this year, it will mean spending cold winter evenings at home wrapped in a blanket, waiting for the wind to start blowing again.
The days of inexpensive, reliable power on demand will end.
The elite policymakers who govern our lives agree we should reduce our carbon emissions. But they have not been up front about the cost for working families. You, the voter, have not had a choice.
We Conservatives spent years in the wilderness after we lost touch with our voters.
If Boris Johnson forces the public into buying expensive, ineffective heating, if he makes us give up our cars, we will reap what we have sown.
The cost of Net Zero could deliver a political crisis greater than the Poll Tax.
Steve Baker is Tory MP for Wycombe[/caption]
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We are on the path to poverty, misery and a failure to inspire the world to decarbonise.
If ministers don’t obtain the consent of the public for Net Zero now, with full and frank explanations of the costs and changes they are planning, eventually there will be a terrible revolt.
The boiler debacle points the way to utter political fiasco.
