Heating and Ventilation News
Environmental Audit Committee Chair has joined calls for extending subsidies for heat pump installations well beyond 2022 to provide training and investment certainty
The Green Homes Grant is proceeding at a “snail’s pace” and will fail to meet its heat pump installation targets without greater government commitment, a parliamentary oversight committee has warned.
MP Philip Dunne, chair of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), said that BEIS Minister Lord Callanan has confirmed to the cross-party oversight body that an estimated 20,000 heat pumps out of a 600,000 target had been so far installed under the Green Homes Grant. The scheme was launched four months ago with the aim of subsidising improvements in the energy efficiency of UK homes, as well as expanding use of heat pumps.
Almost a month after a selection of cross-party MPs backed a motion to appoint a dedicated minister for the hospitality sector, peers grilled the Government on its plans to further support the industry.
Following a 90-minute debate on 11 January, the issue of appointing a dedicated minister for the hospitality sector reached the House of Lords on 3 February.
The issue initially made Parliament’s agenda after more than 200,000 sector supporters – including celebrity chef and pub operator Tom Kerridge, James Martin and Angela Hartnett – signed a petition.
The #SeatAtTheTable campaign highlighted the UK hospitality industry is responsible for about 3m jobs and generates £130bn in activity, resulting in £38bn in taxation but, unlike the arts or sports, does not have a dedicated minister.
“It’s the final piece of the jigsaw,” says Sundeep Takwani, director of regulatory relations at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), on its application to give up its status as a recognised professional body (RPB) for insolvency practitioners.
The organisation applied to the Secretary of State for Business requesting its withdrawal in February 2019 for the purposes of section 391 of the Insolvency Act 1986 after recognising it was no longer commercially viable for its members.
“From our perspective, the cost of insolvency regulation was becoming unsustainable,” says Takwani. ACCA had slowly began transferring some of its regulatory aspects in 2016 to other RPBs.
AN East Lancashire peer has urged the government to do more to save small high street shops from a ‘disastrous situation’ in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Lord Greaves, also a Pendle councillor for Colne’s Waterside ward, was speaking in a short Westminster debate about the potential impact on unemployment of closures of stores such as Debenhams and Arcadia s. The Liberal Democrat told government minister Lord Callanan: “I am speaking from Colne, a smaller town in Lancashire, where most of the high street consists of small, independently owned shops, many of which are in a disastrous situation. “We do not want to close down our high street; we want to keep it going and expand it. What are the government doing to make sure that these small shops, independently owned, will be able to survive and thrive after Covid?”