Heat pump bill will cripple Red Wall families in Net Zero push – Jayne Dowle

There are even rumours that chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance will be called upon to present daily briefings on climate change targets and remind us how we’re doing, with his slides and graphs.

If that makes your heart sink slightly, take heart. At least you’re not in Mr Johnson’s position. Elected to power with the backing of former Labour voters in “red wall” constituencies, he won an election mandate largely on his “man of the people” credentials, and his promise to get Brexit done, of course.

He might be terribly well-connected and educated at Eton and Oxford, but there’s something about Boris that appealed to an electorate sick of being hectored and lectured by sanctimonious politicians.

Mr Johnson’s own fallibility and his bumbling charm – remember all those jolly photo ops with factory workers on the 2019 campaign trail? – made him approachable, attractive even. I think I can put my hand on my heart and say that these are not twin qualities we’ve ever associated with a potential Prime Minister before.

Just over two years into the job, he’s not only had to contend with the worst pandemic in living memory but now an even bigger threat to humanity – climate change.

And if this wasn’t challenging enough, every day the clock ticks closer to the Cop26 international climate summit that the PM and Alok “Air Miles” Sharma are hosting in Glasgow later this year.

How does he balance the demands of this event with the concerns of voters in our region? Would his party have seen the same level of support if people had known then about the policy ramifications of Net Zero?

It’s a tricky one. You literally would have to have been living under a rock to ignore the evidence of climate change these last few years. I’ve been visiting Scotland for decades now and I’m well aware of the fact that it rains. A lot. Yet I’ve never, ever before driven in a constant downpour so ferocious and heavy that the car slid and aqua-planed from the middle to inside lane on the approach to the Forth road bridge.

It was a terrifying experience that for the rest of the trip made me think about how road-builders will surely be obliged to adjust their construction methods and materials to cope with the extreme weather conditions that we now must cope with.

We can’t ignore this kind of thing, just as we can’t ignore the devastating fires wrecking homes and habitats in so many countries this summer, or the fact that Sicily last week recorded what might be the hottest temperature in Europe’s modern history – 119.85 degrees. The anticyclone sweeping this region is not called “Lucifer” for nothing.

Closer to home, we’re being told that new houses and central heating replacements will soon have no option but to rely on heat pumps or hydrogen systems for heating and hot water.

This is not good news for homeowners on modest incomes with a boiler that decides to go bust; a gas boiler can be bought and fitted for less than £2,000, a heat pump can cost upwards of £12,000 and I dare not even tell you the price of hydrogen-fuelled systems.

How does the Government get this kind of inconvenient truth across to voters, without a cast-iron system of financial grants and support, which so far every administration has proven incapable of delivering? Farewell Green Homes Grant – your tenure, like all your predecessors, was short-lived.

And how does it square with a foreign policy which refuses to call to heel countries such as China, with coal-fired power stations belching out pollutants unchecked?

It’s a national and international issue, obviously, but how does it speak to many people in our region, who have suffered disproportionately from unemployment or business failure during the pandemic, but put their faith in the government to look after them?

It’s important to do the right thing, of course. The question, however, for us all – including Boris Johnson – is at what cost?

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.