HMG considering watering down green policies.

[adam2]

As reported on early evening TV news tonight 19/09/2023.

The ban on new registrations of fossil fuelled cars and light vans is likely to be delayed, and the requirement to prohibit new gas boiler installations is likely to be replaced by restrictions on numbers, rather than an outright ban.

The justification for this policy is said to be that the UK has "over delivered" on climate change. Whilst the UK has made good progress on renewably generated electricity, little progress has been made on domestic heating and on transport.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66857551 Edited to add link.

[clv101]

The 2030 ban is fine - it still allows for plug in hybrids. Already around *half* of all new cars are BEV or plugin hybrids. I expect it'll stick - the 2035 full ban of ICE is much more of a challenge.

[Mark]

We need to be going faster, not slamming on the brakes...
What a shower this lot are...

[kenneal - lagger]

We need to be going faster, not slamming on the brakes...
What a shower this lot are...

Agreed!!

[Ralphw2]

I bet this will get huge backing from the Telegraph and Times and Mail and Express. It risks politicising the environment even more into a left v right issue as it is in the US.

It is entirely what I was expecting. When economic growth comes face to face with the brick wall of scientific reality, the politicians and economists shut their eyes and push their foot to the floor.

[Forever_Winter]

The 2030 ban is fine - it still allows for plug in hybrids. Already around *half* of all new cars are BEV or plugin hybrids. I expect it'll stick - the 2035 full ban of ICE is much more of a challenge.

Sunak is probably using the smokscreen of the EU where they're looking to ban ICE cars from 2035. Good news for Chinese EV manufacturers who will be able to sell cheap EVs for the price of a conventional ICE car, while Western manufacturers concentrated on big, bloated SUVs and will rule themselves out of the game.

[Ralphw2]

The EU is considering putting tariffs on Chinese EVs because German ones cannot compete on price and quality, partly due to the high price of energy here, no cheap Russian imports. VW is failing to sell EVs in the numbers it expected, and that will hurt it financially. It has huge unsold stocks. That said, some Chinese companies do too.

[Potemkin Villager]

Did I mishear or was there a mention of landlords not to be obliged to upgrade the BER of rented accommodation?

Rally are aiming to get rid of all "posh boy" Cameron's green crap.

[Ralphw2]

The rise of interest rates has hit a lot of buy to let landlords hard, as their get rich quick finances implode, and they are either selling up or whacking up rents. This has made the rental market even worse for the working poor, whilst helping to cool down the housing market prices.

Imposing the cost of improving the far from perfect epc rating system upgrades on the landlords would see many more selling up and taking a large number of properties out of the rental sector all together.

At a personal level, this has left me with an empty property that has a good epc rating which I cannot sell because of the falling market, but would be a nightmare to rent out because of its listed status, fragile structure, high maintenance costs, and tax implications. I am not getting anyone even prepared to put an offer on the house in the current market. The costs of leaving it empty are small compared with the speed of the market decline.

Of course, the buy to let system is deeply unfair in that the landlords can simply call time on the tenants and socialise their losses.

[Potemkin Villager]

Even more green crap being cut as Home Energy Task Force abandoned after 6 months operation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66900999

Another day another U turn.

[UndercoverElephant]

Is Sunak going to call an early election? I don't really understand the timing of all this. Why are they doing it now?

[Potemkin Villager]

Want to announce trussenomic, big tax cuts to buy votes.

[Ralphw2]

Chancellor has publicly said that there is very little money for tax cuts. This is political, shoring up the support of the old and the ignorant. We are against thse measures BECAUSE labour are in favour.

[Potemkin Villager]

The only evidence the energy task force ever existed, before it's recent abrupt Stalinist style purge and dispatch to the gulag, is the filleted web site https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/en ... -taskforce. This contains the, less than data rich, 1 page "notes of meetings" held between March and June 20203 when they went off on their holliers. I suspect they may have been written by AI.

The following extract from their first meeting rather states the bleeding obvious.

"Barriers and solutions

A range of issues emerged during discussion:
• The importance of operations and decision making, financial and technological risks,
regulations and market conditions, supply chain collaboration.
• There is a need to reduce friction to action.
• Any recommended changes will have to be stepwise and scheduled.
• Mythbusting is critical.
• User pathways must be considered.
• There is a need for a strategic place-based approach to skills
"

No shit Sherlock! Probably no great loss, despite all the huffing and puffing in the media, in the great scheme of things.

[adam2]

Today was the formal announcement that the second phase of HS2 is cancelled.
Among the alternative plans announced was a number of motorway improvements, That together with postponing the ban on new fossil fuelled vehicles should increase oil consumption.
What happened to the climate emergency ?