QPANI calls on Chancellor to ‘give industry a break’

Two leading Northern Ireland trade bodies call for urgent review of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

THE Quarry Products Association NI (QPANI) and Manufacturing NI, two of Northern Ireland’s leading trade bodies, have called on the Chancellor to ‘give industry a break’ and scrap the much-maligned Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) ‘Energy Efficiency Scheme’.

In a joint letter to all of Northern Ireland’s MPs and the Secretary of State, the two organization’s are seeking political support to highlight to the Chancellor the unfair nature of this scheme which, they say, most of UK industry and many major public sector organizations now see as a stealth tax.

Gordon Best (pictured), regional director QPANI, said: ‘The decision by the Government to hold on to the £1 billion a year revenue from the CRC scheme rather than recycle it to CRC participants, which has been a provision of the scheme since its inception, is fundamentally flawed. It is based solely on bolstering up the public finances and has no environmental logic.

‘This decision will, in reality, make the UK a bad place to invest for large companies, particularly large manufacturers, who we desperately need to create jobs and create economic growth.

‘Many manufacturers have invested significantly in energy efficiency and carbon reduction over the last decade; it is now a basic survival requirement in these tough times to reduce energy costs and become more efficient in order to stay ahead of your competitors.

‘Industry does not need government interfering in the market place simply to bolster up the Treasury’s coffers.’

Forty eight organizations in Northern Ireland are required to register under the Energy Efficiency Scheme, of which 19 are private sector companies and the other 29 are public sector organizations.

Only Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful private sector companies are included in the scheme, which will result in a 5–10% increase in energy costs or an additional £500,000 per year for some companies.

According to QPANI and Manufacturing NI, energy costs in Northern Ireland are already some 18% higher than in the Republic of Ireland, 15–20% higher than in Great Britain and 30% higher than in France.

Barry Gray, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, said: ‘It does seem preposterous that government is encouraging companies to become world leaders and then introduces a tax which results in them becoming less competitive in world markets – effectively a tax on success. It is apparent that modifications to the scheme since it was first mooted have resulted in it becoming an overly complex bad tax which urgently needs to be revisited by the Chancellor.’

Both QPANI and Manufacturing NI are asking Northern Ireland’s political representatives at Westminster to make representations to the Treasury, the Chancellor and the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on behalf of all the organizations affected, to have the scheme reviewed as a matter of urgency.