Emma Hardy, the MP for Hull West and Hessle, is pleased that following the pressure she has placed on them the Government will introduce changes for the start of the next Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) year in 2018.
The information was revealed in a letter received by Emma from the office of Jesse Norman, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Transport who has responsibility for the regulations.
Emma had previously contacted the Minister after concerns were expressed by Mark Chesworth, Managing Director of Vivergo, in November about the viability of the Hull Plant. The state of the bioethanol market at that point, along with the political inactivity of the government in not bringing forward the RTFO regulations, caused the Hull Plant to close. This decision had a significant impact on the 150 employees at Vivergo Fuels in Hull and 3000 jobs in the company’s supply chain.
Pressure from Emma led to the Minister meeting with Mark Chesworth and making the announcement in his letter to her this week.
Emma said “I’m pleased that the Government has succumbed to the pressure that Vivergo and I have placed on him and announced a date when the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation will be reviewed by Parliament. Vivergo provide high skilled, well paid jobs to our area and they should be commended for the way they acted to keep their employees in work while the plant was shut down. This announcement will hopefully go a long way to helping them restart the plant and put the future of their employees and businesses on a firmer footing.
“That being said, the situation should never have been allowed to reach this point. It is completely unacceptable that the political inaction of this Conservative Government put 150 jobs and a company that has invested £400 million in the local economy at risk. This uncertainty was totally preventable and could have been mitigated massively if only the Government would have acted sooner.”
