May 2, 2006. Country Land and Business Association. An opportunity to support entrepreneurial farmers in the South East who produce crops for biomass fuel has been missed, according to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).

The Government's response to the Biomass Task Force report on April 27 failed to acknowledge the huge potential of biomass heat-generation as a way of reducing carbon emissions. The CLA has been at pains to point out that carbon savings created by biomass heat generation cost a third of those generated by renewable electricity generation systems such as wind turbines.

Despite the potential for biomass, the grant aid for biomass boilers announced by the Government of £15 million represents only 3% of the total support available under the renewable obligation for electricity. The CLA has been calling for a much more ambitious programme for biomass.

CLA South East regional director Rupert Ashby said: "The CLA has welcomed the Government's broad acceptance of the two key recommendations (new grant aid for biomass boilers and increased use of biomass heat in the public sector), but we fear that the detailed implementation of these proposals will not match even the limited vision of the Task Force.

"We welcome Thursday's announcement as a small step in the right direction, but the CLA will be seeking to ensure the grant aid is made available to rural businesses in a user friendly format, and that the review of biomass use in government buildings actually delivers projects on the ground. We aim to make a major contribution to the biomass strategy which is to be developed, and will be working to promote greater use of the very large biomass resource that is available.

"To this end, the CLA will this summer be publishing guidance and promoting knowledge to help overcome the widespread ignorance of biomass energy."

The Biomass Task Force report and Government response are available at www.defra.gov.uk/farm/acu/energy/biomass-taskforce.

The CLA response to the Biomass Task Force report is available at www.cla.org.uk/Policy/Consultation_Response_Archive/ (scroll down to Renewable Energy/ policy/ Biomass Task Force)