News

'RHI should have been tiered' says top claimant

Biomass boilers installed at a poultry business owned by Paul Hobson Ltd, the top non-domestic RHI beneficiary
Biomass boilers installed at a poultry business owned by Paul Hobson Ltd, the top non-domestic RHI beneficiary Biomass boilers installed at a poultry business owned by Paul Hobson Ltd, the top non-domestic RHI beneficiary

THE highest RHI claimant in the north has said the scheme "should have been tiered" like it was in England.

Co Tyrone poultry business Paul Hobson Ltd was revealed on Thursday as the firm which has received the largest payments under the non-domestic scheme - £659,540 up to February 28 this year.

Based outside Dungannon the poultry farm has claimed for a total of 13 boilers , eight of which were installed within the first 13 months of the scheme being opened in November 2012.

Paul Hobson and Jeremy Hobson are listed as directors of the company, with Jeremy Hobson having featured in a BBC documentary about poultry farming, The Chicken People, in 2015.

The firm is one of the largest producers for Moy Park - the biggest poultry-production business in the north.

Paul Hobson, who operates the company at a farm on the Mullybrannon Road outlined the significant expenditure associated with implementing the scheme.

He told the News Letter how he invested £380,000 installing the boilers and over the period covered by the figures said he spent £426,000 on wood pellets, £75,000 on electricity, £12,000 on boiler servicing, £10,000 on parts and £57,000 on interest payments for the initial loans to pay for the investment.

If correct this would mean since his first application on July 8, 2013 the firm made about £80,000 in profit.

"I was replacing gas heating with biomass; I'd heard it was a good scheme and thought it was going to economically viable to convert," Mr Hobson said.

"I do realise it was open to abuse in this country because of the way it was set up - it should have been tiered, the way it is in England. I would have had no problem with that," he added.