Welsh Government threatens oil boiler ban

The Welsh Government is consulting on its draft Heat Strategy. Although the document takes a high-level approach and will primarily be of interest to people working in the sector, it does contain some clues as to the future of heating in rural Wales which could affect households reliant on oil boilers to keep warm.

The draft Strategy states (page 39), “We will develop and consult on phasing out fossil fuel boilers in existing dwellings at the point of replacement”. The current consultation offers no opportunity to comment directly on this point. The concern is whether the Welsh Government has recognised that some properties will never be suitable for alternative means of heating, or at least that there are questions over whether a viable alternative would be available by the point of any ban. The UK Government, by contrast, has accepted that as many as 20% of existing homes will never be forced to cease using oil boilers if there is no suitable alternative. 

There is a commitment that reads (page 81), “We will undertake exemplar schemes and share best practice to demonstrate how historic and traditionally constructed buildings can effectively decarbonise heat.” This could make a valuable contribution by growing awareness of practical steps that can be taken, but it presupposes that every building will be able to be sufficiently insulated to allow for the use of heat pumps. The UK Government appears no longer to believe this is true. 

The Strategy also highlights (page 40) that 68% of Welsh homes have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower. Two pages earlier, however, it notes that the UK Government has consulted on moving the Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES), the minimum EPC threshold a property must meet to be let, from E to C by 2028 and B by 2030. As such, given no further action, 68% of Welsh homes would be ineligible for letting in five years.

Clearly there is a lot of work to be done. The Strategy needs to clarify what proportion of homes the Welsh Government is targeting to meet the new threshold, and what specific actions it plans to take to achieve it. It maintains that changing the standard “would upgrade over 110,000 homes in Wales that are subject to MEES and currently have an EPC rating of D or lower”: this is perverse, because simply changing a regulation does not in itself upgrade anything. Although grants are available, with 68% of homes requiring upgrade within five years there is a real risk that a significant number of homes will fall out of the rental market.

The Countryside Alliance fully supports net zero carbon emissions as a policy goal: our concern is about whether the solutions being offered are viable within the timeframes under discussion. When the Welsh Government comes back with consultations on more specific proposals we will seek to ensure that these concerns are given full consideration.