24 roundtable: environmental issues ... continued from previous page


Reel: “It seems the Government always end up with unintended consequences.” With any new taxation, regulation or incentives, it was human nature to seek out the opportunities and best personal positioning. “Maybe new schemes should be better market researched before the Government tells the market: We’ve changed things.”


Commercial property lawyer Michael Larcombe highlighted energy performance within properties, noting that some investors, such as landlords, tend to be conservative business people by nature. “Many have set ways of valuing property and assessing income streams. The last thing they want is different things coming along and affecting the balance. Occupiers similarly will tend to resist changes in their lease arrangements.”


market did need reform. “It’s not delivering low carbon, cheaper energy and energy security very well at present, and those are the three things you want from the market,” stated Farrow.


The Labour Party’s recent bold proposals to freeze energy prices and abolish Ofgem, should they be elected, were met with Roundtable scepticism and doubt of their effectiveness.


Hillier highlighted the overbearing influence of the Big Six energy suppliers. “Essentially they keep the UK lights on, and there is little the Government can do that does not involve them. Schemes may come up that seem like good ideas, but frankly if the Big Six say ‘No’ there is little that can be done to force them to change their minds.”


He noted that British Gas was set to miss a government target by almost 30%. “In theory they can be fined 10% of their global turnover, but will that happen?”


Comparing the UK wholesale price of energy with other European countries, Reel queried: “Are we paying a premium for our energy because of the structure of our market?” He suggested a split wholesale and retail market similar to the banking sector or even to follow the phone and broadband multi-supplier market model. “The Big Six would remain dominant but not as dominant.”


Michael Larcombe


David Murray asked if occupiers really take notice of Energy Performance Certification ratings (EPCs).


Larcombe admitted large CSR-aware corporates did, but interest and awareness in EPCs quickly fell away as the size of company dropped.


The Roundtable agreed that property energy efficiency would become more important in future and some buildings might get blighted due to their low performance ratings.


Reel: “Some of the Green Deal offerings are fine, but landlords will simply do the numbers and the best option will prevail.”


Larcombe mentioned that in 2018, energy ratings will be linked to the ability to let buildings, potentially leading to a whole range of unintended consequences. “The economy is like a partially inflated lilo. The Government jumps on one part to squash a problem and another area pops up elsewhere.”


Market reform needed: Power of the Big Six


There was agreement that the energy www.businessmag.co.uk


Hillier felt trying to reduce core fossil-fuel prices would be nigh impossible, so there was a need to ensure competition from other energy sources such as EFW plants, solar or wind power.


“There is actually more deployment now of solar PV, with solar farms going in all over the country, far more than in 2010 when the feed-in tariff was introduced at a high level. Feed-in has incentivised the establishment of the industry. And the Government does listen more and tries to engage at an earlier stage, but the fundamental problem is still the Big Six.”


NIMBY-ism: Alive and well, and living in Britain


Copping: “We tend to look at power in terms of electricity, but we also have a heat-use issue. We constantly talk about building new houses but the developers are not incentivised to build them to incorporate district-heating schemes, for example. We talk about biomass and EFW plants but the big issue is how to use their heat offtake. They are often built in the wrong place because nobody wants a plant near their home."


“That’s nobody in this country,” Roscoe retorted.


Copping agreed, noting the lack of NIMBY- ism in other European countries, one reason he suspected that the UK did not


Simon Copping


Roscoe also mentioned a proposed EFW facility, planning to supply its heat to a nearby prison, which met objections that the development would infringe prisoners’ human rights.


Hillier provided evidence that some developers were now considering district heating and EFW facilities as part of their new schemes. “It’s all about getting it right at the planning stage, particularly with newbuild, both in the commercial and residential sectors.”


Roscoe said NIMBY-ism was “alive and well and fuelled by localism, legal aid and bad science. A local opposition group, all funded by Legal Aid, had pursued four requests for a judicial review on


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2013


have “a system that allows us to efficiently use some of the waste disposal activities that we incentivise people to undertake.


“Lots of waste technologies would be more efficient if they had an outsource for their heat. Heat transfer to electricity and then its power use, is not the most efficient way of doing things.”


Yarrow mentioned that it always surprised whenever proposals to make use of the “waste heat” for local community benefit are met with scepticism and resistance. “Logically such schemes make perfect sense, but in addition to the financial barriers, the legal hurdles in planning and property terms can seem insurmountable; public/local business support or interest needs to change first, to get behind such schemes/proposals and accept them as a great idea."


Roscoe commented that Grundon’s EFW facility at Lakeside off the M25 near Heathrow was only now beginning to get serious interest from local entities about use of its surplus EFW heat in order to lower their energy consumption – despite the facility being opened in 2010.


Often EFW facilities had been built “as far away as possible from where you can actually use the heat, and that’s because of NIMBY-ism and negative perceptions involved. So all that potentially useful heat simply goes up into the atmosphere.”


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