Daily News 30 Mar 2025

Labour launches net zero crackdown on boats

By Paul Homewood

Now the Net Zero lunatics are coming for your boats!

The Telegraph report:

Labour is implementing stricter net zero measures on fishing boats, canal barges and pleasure craft, The Telegraph can reveal.

Under the maritime decarbonisation strategy, boat owners will be forced to swap out diesel engines, petrol generators and wood-fired stoves for electric motors, batteries and extra shore power hookups.

There will also be tax rises on marine fuel, with new boats required to be entirely electric.

Maritime bosses branded the Government’s plans “completely and utterly impractical”.

Richard Gregson, the owner of Worcester-based Classic Yacht Brokerage, said: “It’s complete nonsense to have net zero on yachts.

“The technology for electric engines on small boats isn’t really there. The amount of diesel a yacht burns in a year is negligible, and even if the diesel engines were replaced it would be offset by the making of electric batteries.”

Read the full story here.

For most, barges, yachts and pleasure boats are hobbies. Where on earth does the Government think ordinary people, who have skimped and scraped to renovate and maintain them, will get the money from to replace engines, batteries and the rest of the nonsense?

As for fisherman, this mad crusade will end up destroying their livelihoods.

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March 30, 2025 at 05:29AM

Daily News 30 Mar 2025

Heat Pumps Don’t Last Forever

By Paul Homewood

h/t Paul Kolk

The Telegraph have a sob story about heat pumps:

“Peter and Anne Watts made headlines when they became one of around four British households to have an air-source heat pump fitted in 2008.

That Mr and Mrs Watts, 88 and 82 respectively, had installed a heat pump a decade before the likes of Boris Johnson seized upon them as the future of home heating was highly unusual.

“We had a reporter up from the local paper asking us about our solar panels and our heat pump,” recalls Mr Watts. “In the days afterwards, we got a call from the BBC – I thought it was a prank call from the neighbours.”

Yet 17 years on, the pump is nearing the end of its lifespan – and the price tag for a replacement is £17,000, around £10,000 more than they paid for their original.”

Read the full story here.

The gist of the story is that the government’s £7500 subsidy for heat pumps does not cover ones which replace existing heat pumps.

The idea that it should is frankly ludicrous – when we are all forced to have one, we’ll all end up permanently subsidising our own.

But this story is a timely reminder that heat pumps don’t last forever. Every 15 years or so, you’ll have to fork out another £17000 for a new one.

And if, like this couple, you are retired, just where are you expected to get the money from?

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March 30, 2025 at 04:14AM