ENERGY EFFICIENCY & SUSTAINABILITY
The future of water E
nvironment secretary Owen Paterson told the All Party Parliamentary Water Group
fringe event at his party’s conference that he was “proud” that the Conservatives had privatised the water industry and said it had brought in £110bn in private investment.
But he said we only use 5% of the water that falls on the country, and that we must do more do capture more of it and use it sustainably.
The draft Water Bill is to go through Parliament soon, and includes measures to introduce competition for business, charity and public sector customers; to make it easier for new entrants to the ‘upstream’ market; to make it easier for water companies to trade water; encouraging small-scale water storage; and to change Ofwat’s role and give it a duty to take greater account of long-term resilience.
Colin Skellett, chairman and chief executive of Wessex Water, who helped steer the company through privatisation 25 years ago, noted that it was a “very unpopular” measure at the time but said it had been a huge success and that now was a good time to reflect on the next 25 years.
Like all the water company bosses at the event, he said climate change and the need for resilience would be part of the context for water suppliers in the future – though Paterson, widely seen as a climate change sceptic despite being the environment secretary, did not address that point.
Skellett said customers had growing expectations and that affordability remained an issue, with more people struggling to pay their bills. But he welcomed the changes at Ofwat, which he said have led to “less micro- management”.
Steve Mogford, chief executive of United Utilities, said water companies are doing better at sharing best practice, and also addressed the affordability question, saying the Water Bill “encourages us to think about the use of social tariffs”. “Very few people want to be in debt,” he said. “We’ll help people back into payment.”
Bob Wilson, director of water business at Anglian Water, said he has been “waiting for competition for a long time…there’s very little of it at the moment, despite a few false dawns. But we’ve tried to treat business customers as if they had choice.”
There was much to discuss at a Conservative Party Conference fringe event on water policy, ‘Pipe Up: Will the Water Bill deliver for the consumer?’ Adam Hewitt reports.
He said the company has learnt to do more with less, and also addressed concerns about climate change, saying that regardless of the impacts on the UK – models suggest the UK will get wetter, not drier – the global impact will have knock- on effects here in terms of water management.
Although not in the draft Bill, there are likely to be measures to help deal with bad debt – a problem that adds £15 to the annual bills of everyone who does pay for their water. This could include a requirement for landlords to provide details on tenants when they move.
Paterson spoke about the discussions with the Association of British Insurers about flood insurance. In September, a consultation was published suggesting individual firms could get quotas of high-risk properties they must ensure if a levy-funded reinsurance pool fails. Low- risk properties in effect cross-subsidise high- risk properties, to the tune of £10.50 a year, under the Flood Re model capping premiums.
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opinion@publicsectorexecutive.com
Renewables not the only answer T
he EU needs renewables to ensure security of supply from sustainable sources and to
reduce dependence on foreign imports, as well as the primary goal to cut carbon emissions. More than half the energy consumed in the EU comes from countries outside of it, making the EU the world’s largest energy importer.
It imports more than 80% of the oil and more than 60% of the gas it consumes. The Commis- sion has said that last year oil imports alone cost 315 billion euros. Howe ve r, whilst renew-
40 | public sector executive Sep/Oct 13
ables will help, they will not completely solve the problem of ensuring the supply security of diminishing oil and gas resources or indeed our dependence on foreign imports. Neither are renewables the single answer to achieving Europe’s carbon emission reduction targets. It must also be remembered that globally, our buildings consume massive amounts of energy so the problem is not just a European issue. The bigger picture demands that we find ways of improving the energy efficiency of buildings – both new build, and perhaps more critically, those existing.
Here, on the face of it, schemes such as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and Green Deal would appear to be steps in the right
Does the answer lie in Building Information Modelling (BIM)? We will have to wait and see.
Mike Nankivell
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.spaceair.co.uk
Mike Nankivell, marketing and business development director for longstanding Daikin distributor, Space Airconditioning plc, president-elect of HEVAC and vice president of the Heat Pump Association, discusses energy efficiency.
direction, as should be the more frequent reviews of our Building Regulations. However, we need to look beyond simply designing in and installing more energy efficient materials, services and adopting renewable technologies; we must also consider the way buildings are designed, constructed, used, abused and adapted over the longer term.
© Connect communications
© Connect communications
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