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Extending ‘scrappage’ beyond the automotive industry04 November 2009Since we published our last newsletter, the government set out plans to extend the UK car scrappage scheme, which has proved extremely successful here and across other major European economies. But what scope is there for extending the concept of scrappage – whether funded by government or not – to other cash-strapped industries?
In a poll we carried recently on both the PSB and DPA websites, we asked just that question and the general consensus of opinion was yes – what’s good for the automotive industry is good for other industries. The DPA poll showed 70% in favour and the PSB poll, 80% in favour of extending the scrappage concept to other industries.
Of course, the car (and now van) version has a dual role: to rescue a strategically important industry on the verge of collapse, while at the same time winning more support from the environmental lobby and boosting the government’s green credentials. But can other industries embark on these schemes with some expectation of reasonably generous government aid?
Among those that have taken the scrappage concept to heart include the renewable energy equipment sector, which saw the recent launch of the Carbon Trust’s £2m ‘Big Business Refit’. This scheme, announced back in September by Dragon’s Den star, Theo Paphitis, came about after Carbon Trust research revealed that over half of British businesses don’t have the cash to upgrade old, inefficient equipment.
The Carbon Trust is now experiencing a huge surge in enquiries about the loans, as more businesses become aware of the opportunity to cut their energy bills by scrapping old equipment and, in some cases, install renewable energy equipment in its place.
Continuing this environmental theme, energy and climate change minister Joan Ruddock has put her weight behind the Builders Merchant Federation backed boiler scrappage scheme, which has since become a strategic element of the ‘Reheat Britain’ campaign. This aims to bring government and boiler manufacturers together to provide a grant for householders to replace their old boilers, with the triple benefit of cutting energy bills, providing green jobs and reducing carbon emissions.
Boiler scrappage is the brainchild of Hampshire builder’s merchant, Mick Williams who started the whole thing off by lodging a petition on the Number 10 website. It is now among the top ten environmental petitions to the site.
Unfortunately, as Joan Ruddock pointed out last week, when she lent support to the scheme, the purse strings are in the tight grip of the present occupant of Number 11 Downing Street. And with the fiscal pressures of the banking sector weighing heavily on him at the moment, this, and other budding schemes with laudable environmental aims, may just have to bide their time.
Les Hunt
Editor
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