In a written statement to the House on the 10th March 2011, Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change announced the long awaited proposals for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme.

The Government is aiming for this to be approved by Parliament in summer 2011 and introduced shortly thereafter. We asked Andrew Morphet, Managing Director of Energy Consultants, Synergy Property Services Ltd to explain what this is about.

At this year’s Party conferences, the Conservative and Labour Parties appear to have fallen into a wall cavity without insulation on the subject of energy.

For the second consecutive year no one at the Labour Conference uttered the words HIP or EPC. At the Conservative Conference, Grant Shapps restated his Party’s intention to scrap HIPs and their Policy Green Paper No10 – Strong Foundations states that EPCs should not get in the way of being able to market a property and therefore propose moving it to the end of the sale process.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are a waste of time, money and worse, are actually responsible for increasing the carbon emissions in the UK! Such a stinging statement will surely come as a blow to the Government who have launched the requirement for EPCs as dictated by European legislation.