Many people in Manchester will have gas fires, boilers and cookers, with that familiar blue flame as much a sight if everyday life as glowing hot coals would have been to a previous generation.
However, the use of gas is bound to diminish as the world seeks to move way from fossil fuels, while for Britons the fact that the country is no longer self-sufficient from the North Sea may hasten this.
True, Britain’s exports rely primarily on a pipeline from Norway and we can manage without Russian gas, while Britain’s likely next prime minister Liz Truss has expressed support for ending the ban on fracking for shale gas. But with prices soaring, the threat of Russia using it as a geopolitical weapon and the need to move to green energy, now may be the time to ditch gas.
Doing that is not entirely straightforward, of course. It will mean replacing gas appliances around the house and, as well as shutting off and capping gas pipes, some substantial electrical home rewiring to set up your property to deal with the extra demand on the national grid.
Of course, the big hope will be that over the coming years the UK will be able to generate more and more electricity without carbon pollution. The British Energy Security Strategy, published in April, highlighted plans to establish more energy independence and this will involve major increases in electricity upgrading capacity.
This listed wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear energy as the key factors in enabling Britain to restore the energy independence it once had through fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
Not that this will happen overnight; the strategy stated that “net zero is a smooth transition, not an immediate extinction, for oil and gas.” But for many individual homes, making the switch now is a way they can play their part in the energy revolution that will help the environment and remove the geopolitical vulnerability involved in importing fossil fuels.
