Justification

Rolling the Localnet out to every home in Britain is certainly not going to be cheap – but let’s put it into context by comparing it with some of the other major projects underway. None of which actually improve our quality of life. Take renewable energy and smart metering as examples. The former ruins landscapes while the latter makes us continually guilty about the relentless use of energy in our homes.

Renewable Energy

The UK alone is investing £100 billion in renewable energy to reach the EU-imposed target of 15% of energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. The investment is supposed to come from the private sector but is to be “encouraged with financial incentives” from the government.

Carbon Capture and Storage

The best way to achieve this is still not certain. What is certain is that billions will be spent on developing it – and further billions deploying the winning approach.

Smart Metering

The UK government has announced that it intends to mandate the installation of “smart” electricity and gas meters with rollout to all homes by 2020. This scheme is estimated to “deliver net benefits of between £2.5 billion and £3.6 billion over the next 20 years. However, the press reports a likely cost of £340 per property – or £9.6 billion. With the best possible interpretation on this the figures do not support a return on investment in under 15 years and given that spend is front-loaded and savings will be proportional to the percentage of houses converted, it’s probably closer to 17 years. This does not feel like a wonderful return on investment. It certainly does nothing for our quality of life and is likely to lead to a lot of guilty feelings and frustration about how much energy we are using but can do nothing about.