Electrical Contracting News (ECN) October 2016 | Page 20
KEY ISSUE
ECO-FRIENDLY
David Cowburn of NAPIT discusses the recent consultation on the Energy Company
Obligation (ECO) and how this could affect those living in fuel poverty in the future.
W
ith the current
Energy
Company
Obligation
(ECO) nearing
its end on the
31st March
2017, NAPIT
has been active in consulting with the
government with its plans to introduce a
new five year supplier obligation in its place.
Currently, the government is debating the
possibility of extending the current ECO by
a year as part of a ‘transition period’ prior
to the introduction of a five year scheme.
As a stakeholder, NAPIT was recently
invited to provide responses to a series
of questions regarding the proposed
transition period and the future of ECO in
a consultation which ran between 29th July
and 17th August.
“
of the five year scheme. In our response
to the government consultation on ECO,
NAPIT expressed its support for the
proposed transition period as we believe
it will provide certainty to the market and
allow for time to consider longer term
plans. We also agreed with the proposal to
realign the obligations above by increasing
both the Affordable Warmth obligation and
CERO during a transition period.
Our only concern with the realignment
of the three obligations is the removal of
CSCO, since this obligation aimed to deliver
primary insulation measures restricted to any
home within the 25 per cent most deprived
in Great Britain and primarily promoted the
tackling of fuel poverty in rural areas through
a rural-sub-obligation. On the latter, NAPIT
was asked whether we agreed with plans
to stop the rural sub-obligation from April
2017 with the new transition period. We
THE CHANGES PROPOSED BY THE
GOVERNMENT WILL PROVIDE A COST
EFFECTIVE MEANS OF DEALING WITH
THE PROBLEM OF FUEL POVERTY.
ECO is a government energy efficiency
scheme in Great Britain aimed at reducing
carbon emissions and tackling fuel
poverty; for this reason, NAPIT has always
maintained strong positions on how the
obligation should be implemented. It is
a massive issue, since approximately
10.5 per cent of householders in Great
Britain suffer from fuel poverty. Currently,
ECO possesses three distinct targets
that are required for energy suppliers.
These include the Carbon Emissions
Reduction Obligation (CERO), the
Carbon Saving Community Obligation
(CSCO) and the Affordable Warmth
Obligation (AW). These building blocks
have been instrumental in providing low
income households with energy efficient
installations, including loft and wall
insulations or replacement boilers.
In a bid to increase the scheme’s focus
on supporting fuel poor households,
coupled with improving cost effectiveness,
the government has proposed that the
Affordable Warmth Obligation should
become the sole supplier obligation
from 2018 onwards, whilst incorporating
elements from the other two obligations. The
proposed transition period would however
maintain CERO until the implementation
agreed that whilst this would be beneficial
from a cost effectiveness point of view,
we had concerns that the lack of a rural
sub-obligation could have a negative
impact on those living in fuel poverty
within rural areas. In accordance with this
fear, we suggested that an uplift could be
applied within the new Affordable Wealth
Obligation to encourage deployment in
rural areas to mitigate this impact.
Despite these concerns, we believe that
the changes proposed by the government
will provide a cost effective means of
dealing with the problem of fuel poverty. In
21st century Britain, no household should
have to suffer the negative impacts of fuel
poverty on their wellbeing. For this reason,
the government’s intention to increase
the element focused on fuel poverty from
£310m to £450m can only be viewed
as positive. Especially since they have
claimed the proposals will result in over
one million warmer homes over the course
of the current parliament.
At NAPIT, we are going to continue to
monitor this debate in close detail, starting
with the results of the consultation. We hope
that the result addresses our concerns,
whilst affirming the positive changes we
believe the future will hold for ECO.
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12/09/2016 12:26