MPs and wealthy landowners among beneficiaries of green subsidy

theguardian.com:

A minister, MPs and several aristocratic landowners have received thousands in public funds from a government subsidy intended to stimulate the green transition.

The renewable heating incentive was set up in 2014 to help businesses, public sector and non-profit organisations meet the cost of installing renewable heat systems by paying them a tariff for each unit of heat produced from renewable sources. A parallel system was set up for homes.

But concerns were raised by the National Audit Office, which concluded that although the schemes had good potential to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, “the department has not achieved value for money”.

The NAO also raised concerns about the policing of the system and the risk that it might be gamed. Currently, 22,000 businesses have signed up to the RHI, which is forecast to cost £23bn by 2042.

An investigation by Open Democracy has now found that a number of wealthy landowners and MPs are among the beneficiaries of the subsidy. These include the international trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Philip Dunne MP, who chairs the environment audit committee, and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, who chaired the select committee hearing on the British RHI scheme. They also include the Duke of Devonshire, Peregrine Cavendish; and Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester.

Peter Geoghegan, editor-in-chief of openDemocracy, said: “At a time when energy prices are skyrocketing and millions are struggling with the cost of living crisis, we have found that an obscure heating scheme of dubious quality is costing billions – and that Conservative MPs, and even a government minister, have been benefiting.”

In 2015, Trevelyan and her husband installed two biomass boilers, totalling 198KW capacity, on the family