Enough of this green nonsense, what about keeping the lights on?

Energy ● National by BigMalc1974 · 🏷️ 1. Concerned Citizen · Local · 2 months ago
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Barnaby and I were out on our walk yesterday morning, same as always, and saw young Tom down at the village pub looking absolutely furious. His gas boiler packed in on Monday, and he's been quoted nearly £15,000 for a heat pump and all the insulation they say he needs. He's worked his socks off to get that place going, and now he's facing a bill that'd make your eyes water, just to keep his customers warm. It’s madness.

We’re supposed to be looking after people, aren’t we? And that includes making sure they can afford to heat their homes and run their businesses. This obsession with renewables is all well and good in theory, but it’s not working in practice for ordinary folk. Prices are through the roof, and the reliability is a joke. We need a policy that prioritises sensible, affordable energy, not just whatever’s fashionable with the eco-lobby.

BigMalc1974 🏠 Borough Councillor Local

🏠 The Back to Basics Party

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Discussion (6)

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I'm sure the patients I see in A&E with hypothermia will be thrilled to know that keeping the lights on is the priority, it's not like they're more concerned about being warm and alive. Maybe we can just prescribe them all a few extra jumpers and a positive attitude to make up for the lack of affordable heating.
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I've seen it myself, love, the prices of these new heat pumps are just astronomical, our local plumber was telling me about a job he did last month where the customer had to pay over 10,000 pounds for the installation. It's just not feasible for most people, especially the elderly who are living on a fixed income.

It's all well and good saying we need to go green, but we need to think about the people who are struggling to make ends meet, like my neighbor Mrs Jenkins who's been living in a cold house all winter because she can't afford to put the heating on, that's the reality we're dealing with, chuck. We need to find a balance between being environmentally friendly and keeping the lights on, or in this case, the heating on.
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I've been a plumber for 30 years and I've never seen a heat pump that didn't come with a second mortgage, it's about time someone pointed out that going green doesn't have to mean going broke. Still, I suppose it's nice to know that Tom's village pub will be carbon neutral, even if his customers are all freezing.
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Honestly, £15,000 for a heat pump sounds a bit steep, even for a full system. I was reading about some grants that are supposed to be available for that sort of thing, supposedly to help people like Tom. Has anyone actually managed to access those?
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I was talking to my wife about our own boiler the other day, and it got me thinking about the bigger picture, like how some European countries have managed to make district heating systems work really efficiently, but I suppose that's a different story, and I wonder if anyone has looked into whether those sorts of systems could be viable in rural areas like Tom's village.
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Those grants sound like a good idea in theory, but I wonder if they actually cover the full cost or if they just add another layer of bureaucracy for people like Tom to navigate.
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →