Scale of energy pledges raises workload concerns

Concerns have been raised about the amount of work that the government has pledged to do in relation to energy security and net zero.

Following last week’s splurge of ‘Green Day’ announcements, industry figures have told Utility Week that they are sceptical that all the work promised will be carried out on time.

In particular, there are concerns about the size of the recently formed Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

One senior source within the industry said: “It’s an enormous amount of work to do in such a short space of time.

“With Covid and the pandemic we saw that the government can get things done quickly when properly resourced. I just fear that the department has not got the capacity to carry out all the things that it has pledged to do in such a short space of time.”

In total, government reports released last week in relation to energy security – including the Powering Up Britain paper – totalled more than 2,800 pages. The strategies committed to launching multiple consultations in the next 18 months, responding to previous consultations and launching several schemes aimed at bolstering resilience and supporting net zero.

Pledges include:

• The introduction of a Clean Heat Market Mechanism in 2024 to “incentivise heating system manufacturers to deploy heat pumps as a proportion of fossil fuel boiler sales”
• The formation of the Great British Insulation Scheme to improve energy efficiency in UK homes
• A further consultation in the autumn following on from the Review of Electricity Market Reform
• New legislation to accelerate the road to hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure business models by 2025
• Outlining a clear approach to gas and electricity rebalancing by the end of 2024, as recommended in the Chris Skidmore’s independent review of the energy market
• The launch of 35 different bootcamp courses across England to support the green energy sector with skills shortages
• A consultation on measures to address future carbon leakage risk

Alongside Powering Up Britain the government also published the updated 2023 Green Finance Strategy, which aims to mobilise private investment to strengthen the UK’s position in the global green finance market.

The government also pledged to publish a connections action plan in summer 2023, as well as respond to the National Planning Policy Framework consultation calling for the revision of the de facto ban on onshore wind.

Despite the increased workload, a DESNZ spokesperson said that the government was “completely confident” that it has the staffing required to meet the objectives recently set out.

Staffing numbers for the department have yet to be confirmed. It was formed in February after BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) was split up by prime minister Rishi Sunak.

The DESNZ spokesperson added that exact staff numbers for the department would be confirmed in its annual accounts.

In BEIS’ previous accounts, released in October 2022, 14,481 people were employed by the department on a full-time basis with an additional 1,108 workers employed on other types of contract (including fixed-term and part-time).

It is unclear how many of these people have been seconded to DESNZ and how many will be transferred to the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) and to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

A new report released last week by independent thinktank the Institute for Government warns that retaining staff within the civil service could become problematic for government with a dip in morale and growing animosity over pay.

According to the Institute’s latest Civil Service People Survey, carried out each year to track officials’ attitudes to and experiences of working in the civil service, only 28% of civil servants are satisfied with their pay and benefits, down from 39% in 2021.

Satisfaction in this area has nearly halved in Defra (now 19%) and BEIS (22%). According to Institute for Government research assistant Sachin Savur this “raises questions about staff retention in the newly-formed DBT, DESNZ and DSIT”.

The survey adds: “Ministers should take an interest, because demotivated staff are less likely to achieve ministers’ priorities. […] Meanwhile high levels of churn in the Treasury could affect the quality of advice available to ministers trying to achieve the PM’s pledges on debt and economic growth. And the best untapped talent is less likely to apply to the civil service in the first place.”

Thermal Storage founding director Tom Lowe welcomed the energy security announcements but also stressed the importance of properly staffing government departments to deliver on promised schemes.

“The UK needs to decarbonise 300 homes per working hour every day for the next 27 years,” Lowe said. “That requires the delivery of legislation and a regulatory framework that both establishes new markets and gets out of the way of building things.

“The hard work really starts now for the civil servants. DESNZ, Treasury, the Future Systems Operator, Ofgem and the Environment Agency all need sufficient resourcing to progress at pace.

“There’s a lot to do to finalise the Future Homes Standard, rebalance electricity and gas prices, agree standards for Energy Smart Appliances, launch the Great British Insulation Scheme and reform the energy retail market.”