Property owners who don’t comply with new energy rules may face prison
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
Bit by bit, our personal freedoms are being eroded in the mad rush to Net Zero:
Property owners who fail to comply with new energy efficiency rules could face prison under government plans that have sparked a backlash from Tory MPs.
Ministers want to grant themselves powers to create new criminal offences and increase civil penalties as part of efforts to hit net zero targets. Under the proposals, people who fall foul of regulations to reduce their energy consumption could face up to a year in prison and fines of up to £15,000.
Tory backbenchers are set to rebel against the plans, which they fear would lead to the criminalisation of homeowners, landlords and businesses.
The proposals are contained in the Government’s controversial Energy Bill, which is set to come before the Commons for the first time when MPs return from their summer break on Tuesday.
It provides for “the creation of criminal offences” where there is “non-compliance with a requirement imposed by or under energy performance regulations”. People could also be prosecuted for “provision of false information” about energy efficiency or the “obstruction of… an enforcement authority”.
The Bill will replace and strengthen the rules on energy performance certificates (EPCs), which were previously based on now repealed EU law.
A Government spokesman said: “We have no plans to create new criminal offences, and any suggestion otherwise is untrue.
“Energy certificate legislation originated in EU laws, and our amendments ensure landlords, businesses and tenants are provided with the information they need to make their own decisions on energy efficiency in their buildings.”
Officials suggested the Government required such powers to amend criminal offences that already exist under the current regime.
Ministers are giving themselves broad umbrella powers to redraw and enforce the system before consulting on precisely which changes to make.
Tory MPs have expressed alarm that ministers would be able to create new offences with limited parliamentary scrutiny under the update.
Craig Mackinlay, the head of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, has tabled an amendment to strip the “open-ended and limitless” powers out of the legislation. He told The Telegraph: “The Bill is festooned with new criminal offences. This is just unholy, frankly, that you could be creating criminal offences
“The ones we’ve found most offensive are where a business owner could face a year in prison for not having the right energy performance certificate or type of building certification.”
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former energy secretary, said the proposed use of statutory instruments to create new offences was unacceptable, adding: “Criminal offences are an exceptional use of the state’s power and therefore require the fullest constitutional scrutiny.
“The whole Bill is about piling costs onto consumers. It’s as if Uxbridge and the vote against Ulez had never taken place.”
Whilst such statutory instruments do have to be approved by the Commons, they are typically nodded through and not a single one has failed to pass in the last 35 years.
Sir John Redwood, the Tory MP for Wokingham, said the powers were “over the top” and a “clumsy intervention” to try and force through net zero, adding: “It’s entirely the wrong way around. If you want to speed up progress on energy efficiency, then you should do it via grants and assistance.
“People are in the best position to judge their own houses, and you need to give them a helping hand rather than threaten them with action.”
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has been approached for comment.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
These people are insane.
—and ministers who propose this madness should be locked up. In a padded cell.
We could improve efficiency by using a rope and a drop on them.
” These people are insane. ”
Delusions are frequently a symptom of mental illness. Delusions are frequently caused by groundless beliefs.
Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them, psychiatrists collect the rent
Currently Heat Pumps are regarded as “very poor” on the EPC. Do thye know what they are doing? OK, I know the answer.
What is next? Capital punishment?
“Capital punishment ? ”
Yes; … for any one who comes to my place to try & enforce that !!
It is the absolute hallmark of bureaucratic tyranny. It is something that always seems to slide by. People get elected, they decide that something should be done but the hoi polloi don’t like it and so they move into ad hoc rule making acting as laws. None of the measures were voted in an election – just arrogant people who like to use force.
They should bewar – this does not end up well down the road.
What about catching a criminal first.
It is all part of the long term plan to destroy Capitalism .https://www.technocracy.news/un-agenda-2030-a-recipe-for-global-socialism/
Probably by making impossibly high energy efficiency standards for houses , they will then make it illegal to sell houses which do not meet their targets . The Socialist state will then take over all housing , bit by bit it will get to the ultimate aim of ” You will own nothing , and everything will be under government control “.
I am lucky to live in a house built around 1800 in the countryside. All these green measures will be simply unaffordable to me as a pensioner.
Maybe I will be better off going to prison – winter heating and three meals a day.
Declare yourself a transwoman, then you’ll be a protected oppressed minority. There’s bound to be generous assistance for such favoured people.
Excellent advice all around. Trade your home for three hots and a cot, and when in doubt, play the trans card–works every time. Instantly you become a ‘protected class’ just by saying you are. Who is going to question you? Some bigot?
Or at least end up in a women’s prison.
Using energy to be a criminal offense (!).
Smart meters that summon the police.
“What are you in for?”
“I used 3 kWh over the limit. Nana was cold.”
Don’t give em any more ideas!
An Englishman’s home used to be his castle. Pull up the drawbridge and tell the idiot politicians where to stick their rules and regulations.
People are in prison for not having a TV licence, mostly female pensioners, so there is a precedent. What a dystopic world is being forced on us, 1984 here we come….The UK revolution will take place about March 2031, after a severe winter of power rationing, food shortages and the killing of the last remaining green eco loons. The riots and looting will be targeted at those with electric cars and lights in their homes. Look at what happened Sri Lanka.
Great idea! It is not as if there is lots of space in our prisons but then this might be considered a political crime like not paying Council Tax so you will go straight to a maximum security prison. I hope we will look back on the ULEZ expansion as the turning point when people finally told the elite scum where to go.
I was away in Houston this week (at an oil & gas industry conference!). I drove into Heathrow Pod parking Monday 28 August and drove out on Friday 1 September the 0.6 miles to get to the M25. Just had to pay the ULEZ charge for that 0.6 mile part of my 90 miles back to Hampshire.
But when you go on the tfl site it doesn’t tell you that you have actually been in the zone. Oh no, the only way you can find out is not pay and wait for a penalty charge to come through your letter box. Bet if you pay for a day you didn’t drive in there they would still take yur money – as you have to sign a declaration that you did drive on that day.
Smithfield 1381 looks like it might be a good precedent going forward….
“But when you go on the tfl site it doesn’t tell you that you have actually been in the zone. Oh no, the only way you can find out is not pay and wait for a penalty charge to come through your letter box.”
I thought you could avoid a penalty charge by joining auto pay
(unless they have change this) https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/auto-pay
So you don’t unnecessary pay a charge out of fear but you didn’t actually drive into a charging area as these can be confusing.
Then if you are seen in the zone by a TFL camera they will happily sort charging you and its not your fault if the cameras don’t see you as they are many places that could unfortunately happen.
That is insane giving these control freaks access to automatic charging of credit cards and even worse direct debits. What is to stop them simply inventing charges?
The entire concept of extra charges for vehicles that have already paid road tax, not to mention the extortionate tax element of the actual price at the pump is simply wrong.
>>I thought you could avoid a penalty charge by joining auto pay
(unless they have change this) https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/auto-pay
It sounds like there is no signage at the airport which would mean you could challenge a PCN. If you fly in and hire a car, how would you know you will be charged when you leave the airport?
Hire cars will all be ULEZ compliant: hire cars are rarely more than a couple of years old before they are sold on. I expect the hire companies have thought of the wheeze of charging an extra £10 a day to rent a ULEZ compliant vehicle at LHR.
PlatformZed – no way will I give them open access to my money when I cannot check that the payment is actually correct.
@ThinkingScientist & Realist:
“That is insane giving these control freaks access to automatic charging of credit cards and even worse direct debits. What is to stop them simply inventing charges?”
My guess would be contract law would stop them inventing charges but there is a logical reason to join auto pay you can drag your credit card company into disputed transaction especially if its over £100 which is less stressful than dealing with penalty charge notices especially with the number plate cloning epidemic.
Also you are only charged if TFL camera sees your vehicle so its not your fault if the cameras don’t see you as there are many places that could unfortunately happen especially as there are places in the zone which never had cameras in the 1st place due to the rushed expansion & then we have the vandalism situation.
“no way will I give them open access to my money when I cannot check that the payment is actually correct.”
I believe they invoice you and you could keep a credit card just for TFL stuff.
“The entire concept of extra charges for vehicles that have already paid road tax, not to mention the extortionate tax element of the actual price at the pump is simply wrong.”
Couldn’t agree more it a regressive tax on the working class (lets not forget since at least the 1960s there have being those who have not liked normal people having cars so have done thing like attacking road building to encourage rationing based on wealth).
As someone with asthma I think the idea of ULEZ is a joke if we cared about air pollution I would commission an independent study looking at all the sources of air pollution and the ease of a change e.g. tell people to stop burning wood even in approved stoves in inner London for fashion purposes during a temperature inversion when they can afford natural gas and already have gas heating.
I would explore using DVLA records to find the worse vehicles (on paper at least vs real world emissions) with the highest millage (from MOT data) with the aim to retrofit ideally (after a real world study to monitor this effect) as I don’t see how spending £10s millions on cameras and charging £12.50 a day which many business will write off against their tax (another attack on small business who don’t have the turnover for this to be an option) and scraping cars will a relatively low yearly mileage will clean up the air.
Also trying to manipulate independent studies to get your favour results is misconduct in a public office as far as I’m concerned as we really need to bring politicians who do this to justice.
To address inflation I personally would get rid of fuel duty & vat on fuel, VED, insurance premium tax, ban tolls by replacing them with central gov funding, LTN (i.e. dump the traffic on to the roads the poor live on) and replace it all with a scheme similar to what they have in New Zealand for non-petrol vehicles so they don’t have to bother having regular & red diesel (this should also reduce cost) which is a charge based on the vehicles weight is charged per 1000 KMs (or miles in our case). I would also add top speed as I would like incorporate 3rd party motor vehicle insurance into this so that motor vehicles insurance is no longer compulsory but like in NZ where this is the case to enable real competition and end the extortion of teenagers motorists who live in rural areas.
https://www.aa.co.nz/cars/owning-a-car/licensing-safety-fees/road-user-charges/paying-road-user-charges-ruc
We also need to finish our 20th century road building program as there are places where there are bypass that are clearly need for safety purposes and traffic congestion causes by insufficient river crossing.
Lets learn from the Victorians who built an underground railway as even they realised the demolition need to bring railways into central London was unrealistic by building an underground motorway (like in Boston, Massachusetts but without the corruption) based on the London Ringways plan. Then by also education people to the difference between private car use where public transport may be a possible alternative (it may not be practical – think of the nurse going home to home) & business/commercial vehicles which is mainly about transporting goods and tools as I suspect the anti car types don’t seem to understand this.
I think the phrase that’s missing is “tool up folks”…
Unfortunately, there is a precedence in the UK for enforcing compliance to the religious beliefs of others eg the “Act of Uniformity” 1558.
Is this the “step too far” by the believers ?
This is outrageous, they will have to build a hell of a lot more prisons. Where can I get hold of a shotgun?
Be very careful what you say on-line! Big brother is DEFINITELY watching and you might receive an early morning wake up call!!
Quite right. In NZ we have to think what we write online. Euphemisms are required for mentions of means of projectile launching
Integrating voter registration and smart meter data will be easy. What could go wrong?
Crime: using too much electricity while Tory.
A few years ago when they introduced the compulsory EPC before one could offer a house for sale, this was the break point that imposed laws over people doing a deal between themselves. I couldn’t believe that people did not see this as a rubicon crossed. There should never be laws that prevent a private transaction.
Would you include in your ‘never’, handing over cash in exhange for drugs from your local friendly drug dealer?
Absolutely. My body, my choice.
I would object less if such things were meaningful, but when we sold my mother in laws house 2 years ago, the certificate was done by some pleasant but wholly useless youth who hadn’t got a clue that he was doing, simply ticking (or not) boxes. Any buyer could do it themselves, armed with a form from the Internet. If buyers rely on the certificate they are fools.
Hi Phoenix, I have 3 rentals – I told the EPC inspectors what to put down. They didn’t argue with me on account of they didn’t understand a word of what I told them!
In this case, prison? That’s a mix of the first and third worst type of socialisms …
If Ministers can imprison the public for not hitting targets can the public imprison Ministers for not hitting targets too?
No, but you can decide who sits in Westminster – stop voting LibLabCon
Draconian. It’s a bit like the old enclosure laws or vagrancy laws, in that beyond the immediate justification, the idea is to punish people for being low in the social strata; because it’s one of those moments in history when the elite decide the lowly are scum and must be thrashed for it.
Very true. The lowly have got far too big for their boots, what with their visiting Prague and Venice, driving around like they own the place and voting to make it harder for Polly Toynbee to visit her villa in Tuscany. How are tge Goldsmiths and Windsors of this world supposed to enjoy their huge estates and safaris if the plebs keep making it harder for them?
One thing is for certain, as soon as the scammers get ahold of this, there’ll be a surge of dodgy salesmen telling gullible folk that if they don’t allow them to carry out work on their homes then prison awaits.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/133c05469485b754d0371ef87d924f0ab9adbb79a6de8bcd61e57ba2a2293994_1.webp
Didn’t display.
Meme: They’re doing it again . . . because you didn’t hang them the last time.
I read once, in An Old Book, “What was old is new again.” In the U.S. the democrats have reverted to locking up their perceived political enemies, and Across the Pond, it looks like they have brought back “debtor’s Prison” for those unable to pay for an over-priced, unreliable, inefficient Green heating system. Do you guys live in a free country, or what?
No, we never have; nor do we have a democracy … read history.
We did. Its said that between 1700 and 1914, the only contact most people had with the state was at the post office. Most paid little or no tax beyond local taxes and laws were few and obvious. All that ended with tge introduction of income tax and then conscription in WW1. Imagine that war if Germany, France and the UK had not had conscription.
Phoenix, it came to the U.S. in 1861.
Abraham Lincoln, and his Republicans, favored a large expansion of government. The Morrill Tariff was to pay for it. The U.S. government was funded entirely by tariffs. Paid nearly all by Southerners.
Government revenue was spent by Congress, controlled by Northerners and Westerners (think Ohio back then). Northerners and Westerners refused to enforce the Fugitive Slave law. Causing Southerners to ask, “Why are we paying for all this happy horseshit?”
Follow the money.
And if they don’t lock them up, they dream up all sorts of “indictments”. Just look at what they are doing to Trump.
>> democrats have reverted to locking up their perceived political enemies
” … when the elite decide the lowly are scum and must be thrashed for it. ”
There is certainly the hint of ” … it’s for your own good … ” about the believers’ beliefs, intentions and actions.
I feel this is a matter where individual voting needs focussing on.
In particular how many members of Chris Hohn sponsored Conservative Environment Network are both active in promoting it and have announced their voting intentions.
I notice that The Home Office is busying itself with rather a lot of over the top knife regulation – seems likely if this toxic idiocy goes ahead they’re going to ban pitchforks.
Meanwhile fixy-foam is £6.99 at Toolstation
Great vid. When she said “be smaller” I immediately thought of Get ‘Em Out by Friday by Genesis. Almost prescient.
Stop voting for these LibLabCon tyrants
All part of the globalist plan, which truthers have been exposing and in return accused of being tin foil hat conspiracy theorists. Keir Starmer would be just as bad, with his eco loon Ed Milliband as his minister for climate change and net zero.
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
Richard P. Feynman, physicist.
Reality always wins i.e. blackouts compared to empty promises from globalist (banker) controlled politicians.
And in a few years non-compliance with result in private(!) property being seized by the state.
You will own nothing and you will be happy.
The combination of smart meters (with the ability to disconnect remotely) and a statutory maximum use of domestic energy would be a powerful tool for the believers.
Not the first time and won’t be the last. In s
WW2 the National Farm Survey resulted in 2700 farmers being evicted from their own properties with new compensation nor did they get them back once war had finished
Alec, though I did Physics, Maths and Chemistry for my A levels in 1974 I also managed to fit in History as well. The O level syllabus was British and European History from 1919 to present day, whilst the A level was the same but from 1870 to present day.
Despite that level of study and an ongoing interest in history, this is the first time I have ever heard of the National Farm Survey and its implications.
I thank you for your enlightenment though I am stunned that such goings on was never publicised even to those overtly studying the subject. Makes me wonder what else is supressed.
Ray
You may be interested in the one-place study challenge event taking place later this month (it’s free) a series of ten minute talks – just so happens that my ten minutes is about the National Farm Survey. See http://www.balh.org.uk events page
This is what they propose. I heard an interview the other day and one guest made the comment, “There are no Countries anymore. There are only Companies.” The State you refer to has been co-opted by the avarice of some giant financial concern.
Rubbish. Companies have no power and go bust as soon as we stop buying from them. And they go bust all the time from bad decisions and better competitors. We could destroy Amazon in a month if we all agreed to pay a bit more for stuff. Oh…
And which business can fine you, lock you up, confiscate your property, use violence against you, conscript you to fight, force you to pay them money, stop you keaving or entering your own country?
Governments are the enemy.
While I agree with your sentiments, let me know how that “We could destroy Amazon in a month” thing works out. Bi*ch slapping Dylan and Bud was big fun, but the Black Rocks and Pfizer’s and Amazons and Microsofts of the world OWN the World AND the politicians they buy to run their “country’s” for them.
People don’t use Amazon for the price. They use it to find products actually available to buy. This is the problem. You cannot find many products in brick and mortar shops, but you can find them on Amazon.
>>We could destroy Amazon in a month if we all agreed to pay a bit more for stuff.
Unacceptable but buckle up; it’s coming
Where’s your Dunkirk spirit?!
In a bottle labeled ‘Grand Marnier’
This government (I use the word loosely) are turning this country into a neo-communist state and they will be hammered at the ballot box. Just who are advising on this, 16 yo idiots or wind farm proprietors after more of my tax-pounds?
But the party leading the hammering will impose even worse enforceable edicts on the public under cover of *the climate*.
Not if they are ‘swept away’?
What is needed is a variation of term limits so that NONE (whatever the claimed party label) of the MPs currently in the House of Commons are permitted to stand for the next election.
Only Reform UK can stop the nut zero rot, they do not support it – imagine the shake up if millions vote for them and they get a few MPs in Westminster
Providing they work in conjunction with Reclaim (as they recently did) and focus their efforts on key seats, I can genuinely see the pair of them making it into the low teens of seats. That may not seem many but with the Tories losing seats to Labour/Lib Dems it could well be enough to hold the balance of power in the same way the DUP did in 2017.
The key focus should be on how national policies affect local seats, after all the UK’s third largest party by number of seats (the SNP) is just a one issue, regional party that is massively over represented in the Westminster Parliament for its number of votes.
The other focus (also from the SNP) is not to be seen as an extreme right wing Tory faction but as a National Interest party looking after the country’s own interests a.k.a. the modern “working class” or a Fanfare for the Common Man.
There are huge numbers of disenchanted Labour voters out there who can be attracted as UKIP and the Brexit referendum showed.
p.s. I am actively involved in Reclaim who I feel gain advantage from not having the earlier UKIP association and can appeal to an additional voter profile that Reform struggles with. To illustrate how my points work I live in the only Labour seat in the entire county of Kent that had never previously returned anything other than a Conservative. Key seat targetting is the way to go.
They need to be very careful they don’t split the vote
>>Providing they work in conjunction with Reclaim (as they recently did) and focus their efforts on key seat
The recent success of the “BBB” political party in Holland shows what can be achieved in a short timeframe, although I think that Holland has proportional representation.
@Ray Sanders
Its interesting you mention your actively involved with Reclaim as I think there is another group(s) of disenchanted voters the black & Asian community.
I’m mixed race & looking at this from the Jamaican diaspora viewpoint the way people vote could get very interesting (many of us are looking very closely at all the options) as many in the Labour party seem to treat ethnic minorities as possessions but forget they tend to be more socially conservative especially when it come to their children & won’t tolerate them being using for ideological purposes (Just take the plan to sabotage private schools by making it unaffordable for parents with modest incomes to send their child(ren) to a private schools (at least in the UK many are looking abroad) by adding VAT to private school fees and removing charity status which will leave them with a business rate bill & possibly higher utility bills – even though I disagree I would at least respect them if they openly said they would close private schools.
Black people as a group are also more on guard for potential problems:
1) The false claims of racism to shut down discussion on the logic of housing asylum seekers in places which already have a housing problem & the crime linked as this could led to an us vs them mentality.
2) we have human trafficker deliberately damaging boats or using unseaworthy vessels so they have to be rescued you would think the rational humanitarian would support a clear policy to end this people of requiring anyone who illegally travel to the UK from France or another neighbouring country by boat to be returned to that country with pressure on them to do something about there own boarders as the Schengen area clearly isn’t working to put a stop to this appalling trade.
+ why is the number of Albanian traveling via small boat downplayed.
3) Myself and other I have spoken to are appalled by the politicians who have falsely accused Susan Hall of racism for suggesting Notting Hill carnival should be moved e.g. Hyde park (something I believe was originally suggested by Ken Livingstone) and many of us actually think its is a good idea. We are also getting fed up of false claim of racism being used to stop crime being addressed.
Just to give a few examples.
Great comment – the blob can only control the masses by divide & conquer and a lot of division in society is created by the ruling elites, desperate to remain in control – when the masses stick together, miracles can happen
” …. will impose even worse enforceable edicts on the public under cover of *the climate*. ”
Miliband has a track record as a believer
I think the time is fast approaching where the public anger over the whole idiotic and irrational nett Zero wheeze will result is mass opposition .
Especially once people start seeing the true costs of actually doing the madness .
So I propose that there should be some “huge” public demo in Parliament square with the simple aim of revoking the Mad Mays nett zero bill .
If things get a bit January 6th then the idiots may realise that the people do not want this bollocks..
Lets get a date in the diary very soon !!
Criminalising the population for living normal lives is way out of order
It’s more than that, it’s everything bad our so called leaders revile public ally about places like North Korea – they are no better on this trajectory
If the government can send elderly people to prison for non payment of their television licence, nothing will surprise me. The WEF and their UK disciples are gearing up for dystopia.
“Wear a mask, or go to jail.”
“The masks don’t do anything.”
“Wear a mask, or go to jail.”
Hit them at the ballot box – Reform UK are not supporting nut zero – LibLabCon are
Not even electricity generation can be decarbonised! As I write 28GW is producing 2.8GW.
And has been for several days now
The ironic thing is electricity generation would have largely decarbonised on its own (except for places with lignite close to large urban areas) if it wasn’t for the anti nuclear movement due to the advantages of a power station that only needs bi-yearly refuelling vs the logistic of coal delivery for energy security (you could stockpile 40+ years of fuel if you really wanted) and security of supply (you can build nuclear power station reasonably close to the load reducing the amount and vulnerability from transmission infrastructure).
What really needs to be asked is why do we have 28+ GWe wind instead of 28+ GWe of nuclear capacity if the whole point of renewables is to decarbonise electricity generation as its look like a scam to steal from the tax payer, electricity bill payer and the poor that requires a criminal investigation.
Where have all the investigative journalists gone? Although looking at the drama made with people being forced to have prepayment meters to not see the actual problem energy is too expensive. They wouldn’t propose giving people credit they can’t afford as a solution to high food prices.
Because the Greens hate nuclear.
Because the media hate nuclear.
Because academia hates nuclear.
The world is run on irrational hatreds.
“(you could stockpile 40+ years of fuel if you really wanted) ”
Well actually, we already have. Build a fleet of Fast Breeder Spectrum reactors and simply use up the current “waste” (i.e. unused fuel) stockpile – should keep us going for the next few hundred years.
https://www.moltexenergy.com/reduces-waste/
Nuclear construction has a mixed history in the UK re cost. Sizewell B construction cost was around £2 billion (1987 prices), the cost overrun for Hinkley Point C construction cost is probably in excess of £6 billion but potentially over £14 billion (2022 prices)
Phoenix, you see where Steve Milloy found the US government concealed information proving linear no threshold standard was wrong?
https://junkscience.com/2023/06/emails-reveal-radiation-safety-establishment-tries-to-censor-blockbuster-debunking-of-the-lnt-and-cleanse-the-health-physics-society-of-lnt-critics/
Ray, how many of these marvelous stable salt reactors does Moltex have running?
No need to reply, unless it is >0.
@Ray Sanders
By stockpile I was thinking of uranium fuel rods just like you can stockpile coal in a coal yard.
I do think its worth looking into other designs like fast Breeder reactors & molten salt reactors as we need a reactor design to produce higher temperatures for process heat & for reactors which can be eventually used to retrofit fossil fuel power stations.
Be we need to reflect on what went wrong with previous nuclear programs.
We launched the nuclear program in a panic after the Suez crisis and with the memory of the winter of 1946/7 and fears of coal production not meeting demand launched a target of 5000 to 6000 MWe as the idea of the energy security from a power station where refuelling could be a yearly event sounding too tempting to not explore.
The problem was there was little concern to the practical realities of how to do this economically and in a commercial setting (they clearly ignored the view of the CEGB).
The magnox program was essentially a series of different prototypes being built by a bizarre consortium system. My suspicion is the CEGB/ SSEB were given full control they would have worked with the Canadians with their CANDU design as that could used natural uranium, be refuelled when online and didn’t need a pressure vessel so didn’t have the issues the CEGB had regarding heavy forging. They also wouldn’t have had to keep electricity demand prediction inflated particularly after Natural gas was discovered in the North Sea for political purposes – the construction & manufacturing jobs building new power stations.
What was needed was to review the types of reactors particularly there practical lifespan (as nuclear was a high capital cost project similar to hydro 40 years+ made sense) and to build a small prototype and then full size (500MW to 1000 MW units – looking at the island of GB grid size) prototype which is run for a reasonable period of time (3 years) to find the major bugs such as premature failure of parts or things that just don’t work in the real world for example most of the gas cooled reactors have had to be derated due to these sort of issues. This isn’t just a nuclear issue as the large coal units built in the 1960/70 had teething problems.
This prototype then becomes the base design to build a series of near identical with design life of at least 40 years with an 85%+ capacity factor with each power station having multiple units.
Due to the mess we have with insufficient generating capacity (as we demolished nearly all the coal capacity which should at the very least have being mothballed and didn’t actually replace it with new dispatchable capacity and the dependence on expensive natural gas imports in the UK we don’t have the luxury of time to build prototypes so we really have to choose at existing reactors designs for an fast track nuclear build program and since we don’t have the heavy forging capacity for pressure vessels realistically that leaves the CANDU as the best option with few large sites that are copies based largely of sites like Darlington Nuclear Generating Station or Bruce that could be built within 5 years with the right sort of planning.
As well as to explore ways to increase natural gas storage capacity in the UK and Ireland (since they have the old Kinsale Head gas field and we need to work together if they can politically speaking still be treated the same as anyway in the UK should there be a shortage) as quickly as possible.
When the carrots and nudging doesn’t work, the tyrannical always resort to a big stick to knock you into compliance – the big stick, in civilised so called democratic nations, being fines and prison
The blob knows the masses are not going to voluntarily make themselves poorer, colder and unhealthier, so they now take to threats and punitive actions to make the masses comply
That is NOT democracy, that is the North Korea, China or Afghanistan way
I hope there are sufficient back bench revolts to challenge and alter this bill before it becomes law – we know the opposition parties are mostly rabid, hysterical green mobsters, so this kind of mass thrashing into nut zero shape, is their kind of delicious, sadistic autocracy – control of the masses is the aim, by ongoing project fear and downright dictatorial authoritarianism
I will be monitoring the passage of this bill very closely and will canvas all I can to ensure the punitive measures being considered are removed
A poll among “the 97%” would be enlightening. They could be told that legislation was to be introduced to make it a criminal offence for homeowners not to comply with energy performance regulations aimed at achieving net zero. What prison penalty would the respondent consider appropriate for such a offence – with options from zero to 5 years in jail, or a corresponding sliding scale of fines. A follow-up question could ask if the offence should be extended to promoting scepticism or denial to incite such an offence. I actually rather think that most scientists would balk at the idea of prison for a point of view and might even make them consider what they were getting themselves into. At least I hope so.
I suspect that these measures are going to lead to a very large increase in homelessness. If landlords aren’t permitted to rent without spending silly huge amounts to make their property less attractive to live in then they are likely simply not to rent the place out at all. Where do the tenants go? The street, because we know who gets the hotel rooms.
If you have a look at auction sites it is very noticeable how many tenanted homes are now coming onto the market. Many landlords are getting out of the market already and most of them are not because of interest rates.
https://www.cliveemson.co.uk/properties/
So they want to send people to prison on the strength of an assessor who literally guessed how much insulation was in the loft.
I’ve seen EPCs conducted using “Google Street View” and guesswork.