It was this time last year that we welcomed the long-awaited publication of The Environment Act 2021. Government says the Act will clean up the country’s air, restore natural habitats, increase biodiversity, reduce waste and make better use of our resources. This includes the setting of new legally binding long-term targets to improve air quality and reduce fine particulate (PM2.5) emissions by October 2022. One year on and Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey admitted she was disappointed that her department failed to meet its own statutory deadline for publishing its environmental targets but did not give a new timeline for when they will be published. We hope to see further progress on this over the coming months. 

Since that time, we have continued to demonstrate to government that our sector is committed to reducing the impact of domestic combustion on poor air quality, while at the same time encouraging a greater understanding of the true sources of PM2.5 pollution. 

This year we also launched the HETAS Cleaner Choice scheme and have seen numbers of approved appliances growing steadily as manufacturers look for ways to demonstrate the credentials of their products. The Cleaner Choice scheme has a lower level of particulate emissions than the most stringent legislation requires within current Smoke Control Areas. This means that an appliance must meet both the current requirements for exemption and have attained listing on the DEFRA website, whilst also achieving at least a 50% improvement on current particulate limits for exemption, when measured using the more robust test methodology recognised within the UK. In doing this we are demonstrating to buyers that appliances can be used to burn fuels responsibly and operated in a way that negates excess smoke emission. 

HETAS and Woodsure run the Defra-backed Ready to Burn scheme that certifies wood and manufactured solid fuels for immediate use. The Ready to Burn certification mark helps consumers to easily identify solid fuels that are legal to burn at home in compliance with Air Quality Regulations introduced earlier this year which bans the most polluting fuels, wet wood and house coal, from sale in the UK. Find your local supplier at www.woodsure.co.uk or for manufactured solid fuels visit smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk. 

Over the past year we have been listening to your feedback relating to the services provided by HETAS Insurance Services. As from 18 November 2022, HETAS ceased working with Marsh Ltd, using the trading name HETAS Insurance Services. However, if you do have any queries relating to your current Marsh Insurance policy, please contact Marsh Commercial on 0330 818 7621 or email [email protected] and they will be happy to help with your enquiry. Should your insurance policy through HETAS Insurance Services be due in the coming months, please do contact the HETAS registration team and we will be happy to discuss your ongoing obligations with regards to insurance for the scheme(s) you are registered with us on. 

We are pleased with sector support from Ofgem in recent weeks as they communicated some key messages to non-domestic RHI recipients about new requirements to maintain biomass appliances. Since the communication was sent, we have seen a big increase in biomass maintenance searches on the HETAS website. Further updates on the biomass maintenance scheme were sent to businesses registered on the biomass maintenance scheme earlier in the week.  

Finally, I hope you are keeping busy and ready for a well-deserved break at the end of December. We have one more newsletter and Technical Bulletin coming to you before Christmas when our team will be taking a short break too.