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42 roundtable ... continued from previous page


the solar area which was being attributed to the policy change on FITs. “This time last year we saw a number of new projects in the solar market, the majority of which have been mothballed. We also had a number of overseas clients who were keen to invest in other environmental technologies. Any inward investment from the US has certainly ceased and those businesses have retreated back to the States.”


Murray queried if an incoherent government energy strategy or simply the economic downturn was to blame.


what they like the look of. It is headline making rather than giving any real thought to what sector wants and understands.”


One result is that big manufacturers will move abroad, he said, unless they have a caring policy. “They like the UK for some of our business taxes but the environmental taxes scare them, and they’ll concentrate their production where they are happiest.”


Prior raised the question of UK regulation and legislation hampering the environmental sector, particularly with the UK and Europe operating different legal regimes. “Regulations, planning etc all get gold- plated because of our case-law system in this country. It is so expensive and time-consuming that you can find that you have spent virtually your whole management life banging your head against a brick wall, and in the end you may still get a refusal.”


Andrew Hillier


Yarrow: “The Government has appeared to swap and change over the last 12-months, leading to criticism that the policy is not consistent, nor geared to stable market growth. This has been fuelled by the debate about whether the Government has and will continue to make policy decisions based on the amount of money taken out from incentive schemes for the sector.”


The cynical promotion of certain tax schemes has also not helped the sector, said Brace. “The tax advantages that are available for some initiatives have frequently been exploited for tax reasons rather than commercial reasons, and some of these instances have brought a bad name to the industry.”


Jo Williams from Biffa: “In my area (corporate facilities management) everyone is looking for the ultimate goal of zero waste and trying to get some revenue back from their waste management. But, they are not necessarily prepared to pay for it at present because the costs are so high. That’s because the technological investments have not been made in the environmental sector, and until they are the cost-challenge is one we will always have.”


Neil Grundon complained about government short-termism “picking its winners seemingly by simply favouring


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Do you push the sector’s case enough?


Murray asked the Roundtable if the sector was doing enough to feedback its views to the Government. There was something of a stunned silence, then…


Prior: “You are given so much feedback to undertake, that it is almost impossible to do properly. We could have at least a team of two doing full-time consultation work, and yet do the Government read the feedback, do they perhaps have a chart where they tick off points? I don’t know."


Grundon: “We’ve spent our entire life doing that, and frankly now I can’t be bothered. Let them come to us. Aren’t the Government meant to be our democratically elected public servants?”


Prior: “Wherever the Government gets too involved things invariably go wrong. It’s much better to just let the market find its own level. All this support is nonsense. If there is something that specifically needs developing, then OK, give it a grant for a demonstration project. But, we should all be competing to find the cheapest ways of doing things better.”


Hillier agreed that there was an industry-government disconnect. “Why is the Government prepared to over- ride local issues and prejudice against the building of nuclear power stations, for example, and yet not take seriously what industry innovators are trying to do


with the creation of energy from waste centres?"


“Nuclear power is too darned expensive anyway,” said Prior, “and it’s our children’s children who will ultimately have to pay.”


Reel: “It’s like a bad lease for a car. You don’t see the real cost till the end.”


Jo Williams


Be realistic about environmental targets


The Government should choose what it can afford, not aim to achieve the unachievable, said Prior. Meeting European environmental targets was not financially viable for the UK, he suggested. “I don’t think we can afford them. If we actually get that far, it will stall the economy and everybody will be worse off. By 2020, the target is supposed to be 15% of energy from renewable sources. The actual figures for 2011 are total energy from renewables 3.8%, and electricity 8.7% of supply. The target for electricity for 2011 was 10%, and total energy was 4%. These figures look quite encouraging but should be seen against the profile of the target graphs which resemble a left handed hockey stick. There is a lot to be done in reaching targets of 15% total energy and 20% electricity from renewables by 2020. Apart from onshore wind which is liable to town and country planning backlash, much of the cheaper resource of renewable electricity has already been delivered and some, like landfill gas electricity is beginning to show signs of flattening off."


Hillier agreed with Prior. “We should let the market find it own level. Letting the Government pick winners is not right, but we do need to have a coherent energy strategy. We didn’t get the electricity and gas infrastructure that we have in place today, which has been the backbone of our energy supply for the past 50 years, just because it was


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2012


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