The campaign focus for the autumn and winter has been to encourage supporters to write to their MPs to highlight that the promise made by the previous government to hold a consultation on the introduction of renewable liquid heating fuel obligation, has not been kept. This is despite cross party support, including from Labour, which now forms the Government.
It’s been highly successful in drawing attention to our concerns, with over 1,000 letters written by supporters.
This has been backed up by our ongoing lobbying efforts and has led to several MPs asking questions about the potential role of heating fuels like HVO in Parliament. This puts pressure on the Government to take action.
The frustrating thing is that the groundwork has already been done. On 26 October 2023, the Energy Act received Royal Assent and became an official Act of Parliament. Within the Act is legislation which, if invoked by the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), would create the renewable liquid heating fuel
obligation, and pave the way for the introduction of HVO for heating.
This piece of legislation was introduced with the promise of a consultation on the technical details
in a few months and certainly within one year. While acknowledging that there is a new government, rural
consumers were effectively promised a consultation within a year but, so far, the consultation has not been
forthcoming.
