OFTEC has expressed major concerns that government proposals to exclude oil boilers from the next round of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme would unfairly discriminate against rural households and lead to even higher levels of fuel poverty.
Last month BEIS launched a consultation on the introduction of ECO3 which is due to run from this October. It will be the third phase of the ECO initiative which aims to provide affordable warmth to low income and other vulnerable households.
Under the new proposals, oil-heated households will still be eligible to fit energy efficiency measures such as insulation and heating controls but unable to repair or replace an old, faulty or broken boiler with a new oil appliance. Comparable households on mains gas or LPG would continue to have access to this support.
Oil using consumers may be allowed to fit other solutions such as air source heat pumps – although these would not be eligible for RHI payments – and LPG boilers under the revised ECO3 scheme, but these systems are far more expensive to run, currently costing up to 60% and 48% more respectively each year to heat an average three-bedroom house compared to a high efficiency oil boiler1.
OFTEC says this situation would leave some of the most vulnerable rural households at a significant financial disadvantage compared to those on mains gas. A further potential consequence is that to avoid the substantially higher fuel bills which would result from switching to LPG or heat pumps, oil using consumers may ignore faulty appliances, employ cowboy technicians to fix them or worse, try to carry out repairs themselves at considerable risk.
OFTEC’s concerns over the ECO3 proposals have been echoed by other organisations including fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA). OFTEC has also received responses from a number of rural MPs backing the trade organisation’s stance.
Commenting, OFTEC CEO Paul Rose says: “The fact that fuel poverty levels are already higher in rural locations² makes government proposals to omit oil boilers from the next round of ECO even more nonsensical.
“The situation could be acceptable if affordable alternative heating solutions to oil existed. But the simple fact is that currently, they don’t.
“The plan to exclude oil boilers from ECO3, which is due to a misguided attempt to align fuel poverty and carbon reduction policies, would unfairly discriminate against rural households in fuel poverty over their urban counterparts connected to mains gas – the very people the scheme is designed to help. Mains gas and LPG have not been excluded yet both are still fossil fuels with high carbon emissions.”