Policy statement

There are now almost daily reports in the national media of key figures promulgating the move towards nuclear in future energy policy. Tony Blair, Lord Sainsbury and Sir David King are at the vanguard of this action. BEAMA Energy is seeking from government a shared stance on a true low carbon strategic outlook.

I urge the government to get off the fence and act - now. For the electric heating industry to deliver a sustainable energy future, it's time that government gave clear policy direction.

Most in the energy and building services industries are aware that, at best, the 2003 Energy White Paper (Our energy future - creating a low carbon economy) was a mix of interim discussion topics with a few short-term policy ideas. As a marker allowing industries to plan for a sustainable energy future, it has posed more questions than answers.

What UK building services equipment manufacturers want to know is: what energy will we be using in 15-20 years time? If it's low carbon electricity, we need to start planning now. We must ensure we have the correct balance of UK-manufactured appliances in place.

BEAMA Energy advises electric heating and hot water appliance manufacturers to back the production of small-scale renewable technologies as a short-term market tied towards the real low carbon economy.

We have seen changes to Building Regulations aiming to make inroads through energy efficiency. Also, the £30 million funding over three years for the Low Carbon Building Programme is good news for the small-scale renewables sector - although hardly enough to stimulate a long-term market.

Short-term, the industry will do well when marrying their offers with small-scale renewables, utilising the available energy at point of generation and use.

Some may believe that this is progress. Yet three years on from that much-trumpeted strategy document we are no closer towards understanding what our generation mix will look like in 2020 and beyond.

Clean generation

For the electric heating industry to deliver a sustainable energy future, it’s time that government gave clear policy direction

It is new and clean generation that can deliver the real low carbon economy, working in tandem with a sustained energy efficiency push. The absence of a clean generation strategy gives government officials within the DTI, ODPM and DEFRA a policy headache of some magnitude.

The government states within the White Paper that it is committed to a low carbon economy. However, it suffers from the dichotomy of having short-term energy efficiency policies addressing the climate change agenda. Policies with little impact on the security of supply problem.

There's no firm admission on which way the UK will go with respect to long-term energy needs. The building services sector needs a strong steer.

Rightly, the mantra is energy efficiency. But we are adrift in a sea of carbon trading, white certificates and reliable imports seemingly muddying the waters of the real issues: how much energy will we need in the future? Where and how will we source it?

While we wait, energy efficiency policies drive us all towards penalising electrical appliances through regulation, and limiting the prospects of UK manufacturers. What is the political and economic sense in this as we move towards the low carbon economy?

The White Paper identified that security of supply was a real problem to be resolved. The recent admission by British Gas' managing director Mark Clare that the ‘golden era' of gas is over comes on the back of a 42% increase in wholesale gas prices since 2004. These are urgent signals that the government needs to receive, translate and act upon.

Firm, unstinted direction on how our fuel mix will look in 2020 is vital. As a minimum requirement, BEAMA Energy is seeking a committed, widely-understood approach towards sustaining the electrical building services sector.