Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill

Lord Berkeley Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Berkeley (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the Bill. I am not often known to be supporting aviation, but this is the first time there has been a serious attempt to reduce its carbon emissions. At the same time, it can be used also to help the millions of households across Britain that actually do not have access to gas. I spoke about this in a debate on the energy Bill earlier this year and I declare an interest as the owner of a house that does not have gas, so we have to use oil.

There are 1.7 million homes in the UK, serving about 4 million people, that are off the gas grid and rely only on heating oil. They will be suffering at the present time, when it is really cold. They are mostly in rural community areas, where alternatives such as heat pumps work sometimes but not always.

It has come out of the recent debate that HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil, is a renewable fuel that can cut emissions from home heating by up to 88% compared with kerosene, which is used at the moment. It works as a drop-in replacement—you just tip it in the tank. I do not know, because I have not tried it. The reason I bring it up again this morning is that HVO is a by-product. It is only about 30% of the output from SAF and, as SAF production goes up, we can increase the domestic supply of HVO.

Ministers have rightly said that HVO will play a vital role in our aviation decarbonisation journey, and I certainly agree with that. But it looks as if the SAF mandate will accelerate that growth from what I think is about 2% of jet fuel demand today, rising to 10% in 2030 and 22% in 2040. That is enough HVO to provide a 66% or so blend of heating oil, which will sort out the decarbonisation needs of most off-grid homes. Especially at this time of year when it is really cold, this is a benefit not only for the aviation industry but for people who live in the countryside or cannot connect to alternatives.

We need the right mechanism, as other noble Lords have spoken about. Section 159 of the Energy Act 2023 gives the Government power to create a renewable liquid heating fuel obligation, which mirrors what the Labour Government did with the transport fuel obligation last time. I was really pleased, therefore, to read an announcement from the Government on Tuesday this week about a consultation on this. The industry that provides SAF and other similar material, working with their off-grid customers, has built up a considerable bank of evidence and data to show that this policy will actually benefit both consumers and the environment. I hope now that the consultation will allow things to move forward at pace.

I was interested to read that the Irish Government recently confirmed their intention to implement a renewable heat obligation, confident that their feedstocks are available to supply their off-grid homes. That is terribly important, as the noble Lord, Lord Grayling, referred to. If there are enough feedstocks, the market will work.

This is an opportunity to deliver a win-win: cleaner skies and warmer homes. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will discuss this with his new ministerial colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Whitehead—who was introduced today and has a lot of experience—confirm the Irish Government’s conclusion and commit to implementing Section 159 swiftly following the consultation.

On that basis, I hope we can have a win-win solution for aviation and home heating.