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Volume 57 | Issue 6 | June 2019
New zero carbon goals receive industry backing
Name the city and win a Vokèra boiler!
Calls for the Government to adopt more ambitious zero carbon targets and invest in an energy efficiency upgrade for the country’s existing homes have been widely supported by heating industry bodies. A recent report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) that calls for major improvements to the insulation and energy efficiency of existing buildings, and making all new buildings net zero carbon within a decade, has received support from a number of industry bodies, including the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Among its recommendations, the report advocates the widespread adoption of heat pumps in place of conventional boilers and accelerating the use of district heating and hydrogen. “This is a huge moment for our industry,” says BESA President Tim Hopkinson. “All of these things are achievable and the building engineering sector is in the vanguard of zero carbon action. We are already delivering low carbon heating solutions, but we acknowledge the need to go further and faster and, if the Government turns the CCC recommendations into policy, we can.” While the CCC’s report – ‘Net Zero, the UK’s Contribution to Stopping Climate Change’ – emphasises the need to move
away from a reliance on fossil fuels, there is also a recognition that hybrid systems, green gas and hydrogen boilers also have a role to play if the country is to embrace a low carbon future. The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) says that the CCC’s key message is therefore very much in line with its own position. “We welcome this latest report and the initiative to set more aggressive targets for deep decarbonisation,” says Head of Technical Services and Policy, Ian McCluskey. “To meet net zero will increase
the need for policy and decision making that accelerates the implementation of necessary technologies such as carbon capture, methane reforming for hydrogen production at scale, renewables and decarbonised heating. IGEM, and the gas sector as a whole, is already committed to developing these initiatives.” BEAMA, the UK trade association, representing manufacturers of energy technologies, also supports the CCC’s net zero target, heralding the report as a “great step forward”, but to reach its targets the association warns that the UK will need to radically accelerate plans to reform planning and regulations for the UK housing stock. “The challenge for our industry is the need for investment planning and this requires clear and decisive strategies from Government on what the market will look like,” says BEAMA CEO Dr. Howard Porter. “Action needs to happen fast to ensure we have the supply chain in the UK to deliver on this.”
Closure for Plumbing Pensions Scheme Plumbing Pensions, the multi-employer pension scheme for the plumbing industry that has been running for 40 years, has announced that it will close at the end of this month. The announcement means that no members of the Scheme will build up any new pension benefits after 30 June 2019. However, the existing benefits already built up are protected by law and will not be affected by closure. The Scheme is writing to employers and to all active members to explain what closure means for their benefits and employers have been advised that they will need to auto-
enrol their employees into a new pension arrangement from 1 July 2019 onwards. Members with a deferred pension which has not yet started and members already receiving a pension are not affected by this announcement. Plumbing Pensions Chief Executive Kate Yates says: “It is sad that we need to close the Plumbing Pensions Scheme after so many years of being able to offer good value, lowcost pensions to plumbers. Our aim has always been to run the Scheme in the most responsible way to ensure members receive all the benefits they are due in full. The
Trustee and the Constituent Organisations that jointly decide the Scheme’s benefits have looked at all the options and consulted with employers. They believe that closing the Scheme and not letting members build up any new benefits is the most responsible and practical way to protect members’ benefits for the future. “We want to reassure members that the Scheme is in a very good financial position with enough money to pay all member benefits built up to now, and the decision to close the Scheme to future accrual helps safeguard that position.”
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All aboard
An old lifeboat, now converted into a houseboat, is being heated by an external Tuscan oil-fired boiler from Hounsfield Boilers which has been modified to run on diesel. OFTEC installer Hollie Stallworthy of Hollie’s Heating Services contacted the company after struggling to find a manufacturer that would be willing to offer any guarantee for a boiler that would be reliant on red diesel power, but MD Andrew Hounsfield explained that the modifications needed were only slight. “We are a small company and can easily adapt our production line to help customers use our boilers in bespoke applications, and we were happy to help,” says Andrew.
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