STARK BY NAME AND STARK BY NATURE

It’s difficult not to feel sympathy for Chris Stark.

He has the honourable job of being Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change and still uses a nasty gas boiler rather than an environmentally friendly heat pump.

It’s not that he doesn’t want one – he’d love one – but it won’t fit into his home – it’s a flat like so many houses in the UK.

Even Michael Gove admits that we are trying to move too fast with the pumps. Only 10,000 were installed in the first year of the programme, falling way behind the 30,000 target.

Looks like Rishi’s target of 600,000 installed in 2028 is a tough call, but then that may be Mr Starmer’s problem.

Chris is Stark by name and stark by nature. He told MPs the honest truth that heat pumps are too expensive and there are not enough gas engineers to install the devices. He also was frank and said that heat pumps are difficult to install in flats.

The former Energy Secretary, Grant Shapps has looked at the alternative of using hydrogen instead of gas – ‘you’d have to produce a lot of hydrogen and replace a lot of piping,’ he said.

Also getting the needle in was the aptly named Director of Strategy of Cadent Gas, Dr Angela Needle (some great names in this business) who said that heat pumps are ‘a luxury product for people with £13,000 in the bank,’ so the former CEO of Nat West who is walking away with £2.4 million should be all right. I think a sauna could be on order.

Greg Jackson of Octopus Energy says that using hydrogen is like ‘flushing the toilet with champagne’ – having presumably drunk it first.

So how about poor freezing Mr Stark – I suggest a pair of woolly pyjamas and bed socks topped off with a bobble hat à la Scrooge.

Have a good weekend.

Tom