Statement in response to the general election announcement

23rd May 2024

Following the announcement of a General Election on 4 July 2024, Paul Rose, CEO of OFTEC and Ken Cronin, CEO of UKIFDA, commented:

“As the general election campaign begins, the parties and their candidates standing across the UK’s rural seats must look to the issues that truly matter to rural voters and the challenges they face. This includes how rural communities will heat their homes and how government can give them choice about how best to decarbonise their home heating.

“Whatever party is victorious, they will inherit an uncertain economic situation and a need to prioritise policy changes that are possible given this outlook. This must include:

• Delivering on the commitments parliament made to the UK’s 1.7 million off-grid households in passing the Energy Act, which included providing them the opportunity to use renewable liquid fuels – through a Renewable Liquid Heating Fuel Obligation – which will make the fuel affordable.
• Addressing the unequal tax treatment for renewable liquid fuels, which reduces the cost to consumers for their use in transport but not for home heating. Scrapping this duty, at no cost to the taxpayer, would incentivise rural off-grid households to switch to renewable liquid fuels.

“In this election, rural off-grid households now must have the certainty they need to be able to choose how best they can make their contribution to achieving net zero.  We stand ready to work with the next government to make that a reality.”