Eco wheezes are for the privileged few
One has to question whether the Government's eco micro-management does any good, given the millions thrown at these projects. The feed-in tariffs for solar energy gave an absurdly generous subsidy paid for by other energy users for one of the most expensive and inefficient forms of energy generation conceivable given our climate. Between £6.7billion and £8.4billion will be spent on this over the next 20 years.
Without subsidy, it would take 30 years for a £12,500 investment in photovoltaic panels to pay off. With them, you get a tax-free return of six to eight per cent.
Solar panels are subsidised ten times more generously than hydro generation, which actually is a good idea in the UK. Needless to say, large landowners or their accountants got in on the act, farming feed-in tariffs rather than crops.
Now the Government is looking at chopping the hand-outs for large-scale projects (although fields of photovoltaic panels make more sense than expensively fitting them to small, urban roofs).
Last week another wheeze was unveiled with the £860million Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), rewarding large landowners running businesses with generous grants for using biomass boilers.
This means people like Jon Hunt, who sold the Foxtons estate agency for £370million in 2007.
His Georgian pile Heveningham Hall in Suffolk has a particularly high-tech wood-burning boiler that also heats 26 cottages and cost about £150,000. He got a Defra grant to help pay for it, as it pre-dates the RHI scheme.
Is it really a good use of £860million to sweeten business users and, from June, domestic users to spend out on these expensive renewable energy schemes? Won't high oil and gas prices do this anyway, without suburban taxpayers needing to shell out for a privileged minority of country landowners?
Most people will still have to rely on centrally provided heat and energy. The Government's eco message to them seems to be: get insulation, cut out draughts, wear a pullover ... and keep paying out.
l Just after the arrest of Vincent Tchenguiz came the news that his former company, Peverel property management group, which runs most retirement developments and swathes of city flats, was being put into administration by the Bank of America. This is excellent news. A root and branch clear out of Tchenguiz management is just what that unfortunate company needs.
From The Mail On Sunday, 20th March, 2011