Former Cabinet Minister Warns of Backlash Over Scrapping Oil Boilers

George Eustice said issue could be as unpopular as ULEZ extension

Environment Secretary George Eustice speaking at a COVID-19 briefing in Downing Street, London on Apr. 26, 2020. (Downing Street/PA)

A former environment secretary has said 1.7 million rural homes will be affected by a looming ban on oil boilers and has warned the issue could be as unpopular in the countryside as the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London.

George Eustice, who represents the Cornish constituency of Camborne and Redruth, said: “Rural communities are about to have their own version of London’s ultra-low emission zone dumped on them.”

Last month Labour’s candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Danny Beales, failed to win the seat in a by-election caused by the resignation of former prime minister Boris Johnson after the Conservatives turned the campaign into a referendum on the extension of ULEZ to outer London boroughs.

TfL says nine out of ten cars seen driving in outer London on an average day comply with the ULEZ standards but the RAC says more than 690,000 cars in the whole of London are likely to be non-compliant.

The government is planning to ban the installation of new oil and gas boilers from 2026 and make householders buy air-source heat pumps instead.

An estimated 1.7 million rural homes currently have oil boilers, usually because they are too far away from the national gas network grid.

Heat pumps are part of the government’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a target of 600,000 heat pump installations by 2028.

But Mr. Eustice said they cost four times more than a new boiler and he called on the government to amend the Energy Bill which is going through Parliament to allow oil boilers to be converted to use other more environmentally-friendly fuels.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr. Eustice said: “For just a couple of hundred pounds, an existing kerosene boiler can be converted to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil made from waste cooking oil or vegetable waste.”

“Facilitating that switch would reduce carbon emissions by 88 percent far faster than the current approach could and at a fraction of the cost,” he added.

Government Should not ‘Lock’ Into Technologies

Mr. Eustice urged the government not to “lock” into technologies which might not deliver the required result.

He wrote: “To pick winners today is to shut down all the other innovation taking place and the prime minister is right to push back.”

The Telegraph claimed more than 30 Tory MPs had written to the prime minister over the issue.

The Countryside Alliance wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “The government must recognise the disproportionate impact this transition will have in rural areas and work with our communities, rather than imposing change from Whitehall, to deliver affordable alternatives and the infrastructure needed.”

The UK has signed into law a policy to achieve net zero by 2050 with the Conservative government setting out a strategy called “Build Back Greener” to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy.

According to its Heat Pump Investment Roadmap strategy, released in April, reducing the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 means it must decarbonise the heating of over 30 million homes across the UK in a little over 25 years.

There have also been concerns about the noise emanating from heat pumps.

Heat pumps, which run on electricity and work like a fridge in reverse to extract energy from the air or ground, operate at around 40 decibels and can get up to 60 decibels, about as loud as a refrigerator to an air conditioner.

Sunak Does not Want to ‘Hassle’ People Over Net Zero

Last month Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said: “We’re going to make progress towards net zero but we’re going to do that in a proportionate and pragmatic way that doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives–that’s not what I’m interested in and prepared to do.”

But he said his government was committed to phasing out gas and oil boilers and ending the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

On Sunday Environment Minister Therese Coffey said abandoning green policies could cost the Conservatives the next general election, which must be held by January 2025 at the latest.

Ms. Coffey told the Mail on Sunday: “In order to win the next election, we need to continue to show that we care about the environment. We also need to show that there is a way to do that which doesn’t put burdens on hard-working people.”

PA Media contributed to this report.