New Government Green Deal scheme will hit the elderly

The energy industry’s body representing oil suppliers has said the Government’s new Green Deal Home Improvement Fund announced today discriminates against rural homes off the mains gas supply.

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd May 2014, 12:14 BST

An estimated 21,000 rural properties in Sussex currently using oil for their central heating.

Since the incentives to upgrade boilers only apply to gas appliances, these will not be able to get help upgrading their boilers.

Jeremy Hawksley, director general of OFTEC, the trade body for oil-fired heating, says: “These properties also tend to be older and poorly insulated, often costing more to heat and so this new Government policy is clearly discriminatory and unfair.

Jeremy Hawksley, Director General of OFTEC, the Oil Firing Technical Association. Photo by Andrew Higgins, for Genesis PR/OFTEC

“People living in fuel poverty, which is more prevalent in rural areas, will not be able to benefit.”

OFTEC has also said the recently launched Government domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme aimed at encouraging rural households to adopt ways to reduce fuel bills and carbon emissions was ‘only fit for the wealthy’.