C2572 02 Apr-May 06 AW - LP Gas Magazine

DIRECTOR GENERAL
IT’S
GOODBYE
FROM ME…
by Tom Fidell,
director general, LP Gas Association
After 13 years running the LP Gas Association,
Tom Fidell will be retiring in early June this year.
Here, he says farewell to the industry.
Tom Fidell
My first day at the LPGA was a cold
morning at the beginning of March
1993 and, after seeing the generally
run-down condition of the office, I
thought I had better check through
the accounts to see how things
stood financially.
This quickly showed that the
association would run out of money
in October of that year and, with
subscription income not coming in
until the following January, there
would be no money to pay salaries
in November and December!
We had a big exhibition coming up
in Telford that was supposed to
bring in lots of money for the LPGA,
but bookings had not gone as well
as forecast and it was now going to
make a loss. However, the exhibition
organiser was clearly going to make
a big profit and some tough
negotiations with this organiser soon
turned things around in our favour,
such that we would at least make
some profit from this event.
It now became apparent why I
had got the job at the Association
as, at the interview, I knew I had
been in competition with some
executive committee members - it
was because the association was
looking for someone who could run
a small business and make it
profitable!
We needed a sustainable solution,
which meant cutting costs and
getting in more income and, to save
money, one of the things we did was
to not pay rent for several months
and then negotiate a 50% discount.
To raise income, we clearly needed
to increase subscription levels and
increase the number of members
(not an easy combination) but, at a
special meeting that year, we
managed to agree an increase in
subscriptions and membership
actually started to increase.
How different things are today,
with more than double the number
of members compared to 1993 and
more than £0.75 million in the bank!
Today we have also got
substantial credibility with the
Government and are able to call on
ministers and senior government
officials when we have a problem
and believe that they can help us.
Compared to those early days in
1993 when we never even came
close to seeing a minister, we now
have sometimes half a dozen
meetings per year with ministers,
and even get them to come along to
speak at our Conference and
undertake promotional launches!
Some of the highlights over the
years are as follows:
PUBLICATION OF LPGA
CODES OF PRACTICE
Back in 1996, the HSE used to
publish lpg Codes of Practice and so
did the LPGA. This was a duplication
of effort and confusing for the
industry. I met with the director
general of the HSE to agree a
strategy whereby one set of Codes
would be published by the LPGA but
would bear the HSC logo and
endorsement, where appropriate.
At that time, we also moved from
subcontracting the publication of the
Codes of Practice (where we did not
have an income stream) to in-house
publication, where the income
stream often covers 20% of the total
cost of running the association.
The Codes are highly regarded by
both industry and government, and
are sold on a worldwide basis,
where other countries now adhere to
LPGA standards.
Reg Shipman recieves his
MBE from The Queen.
MBE FOR REG SHIPMAN
Reg had been our technical
manager for many years and, when
he retired in 1999, we applied for
and obtained an MBE for him. Reg
had worked tirelessly for the
association and the MBE was well
deserved.
CLIMATE CHANGE LEVY
The biggest lobbying campaign we
have ever done was on the Climate
Change Levy in 2000, when Pat
Kennedy was our chairman and also
the chief executive of Calor Gas. The
CCL could have been very harmful
for our industry. Pat and I worked
very closely together, having
numerous meetings with
government ministers and officials,
putting forward a strong case for a
reduction in the CCL on lpg.
Our efforts were rewarded with a
reduction in the initial CCL from
1.5p/litre to 1p/litre, and then a
further reduction to 0.5p/litre which
was, in fact, half the CCL that is
applied to natural gas. We also
managed to get cylinder gas
excluded from the CCL.
This achievement put the LPGA
on the map as being one of the most
effective lobbying organisations in
the UK. As a result, other
associations asked us how such a
small organisation could achieve
such results time and time again. We
were asked to give presentations to
other associations on how to lobby
government to achieve a required
result.
At this time in 2000, the method in
which the association worked was
changed in line with our chairman’s
suggestion, and the association
became more focussed on lobbying
and getting results, rather than trying
to be an association of all things for
all people. The Association today still
operates very much in the mould
that was set by Pat Kennedy back in
2000.
AUTOGAS
It soon became clear that we
needed an extra stream of gas
usage to compensate for the decline
in the cylinder market, and autogas
seemed to be the ideal candidate.
We prepared a strong
environmental case for autogas and
started to lobby the Government to
get the fuel duty rate down and, in
1995, achieved a 15% reduction.
This was followed by a 25%
reduction in 1996, a 29% reduction
in 1999 and, finally, a 40% reduction
in 2001. At the same time, petrol
and diesel prices were rising, and we
ended up with one of the most
favourable fiscal regimes in the world
for autogas.
The market is continuing to grow
at 7–8% per annum, and now
represents about 10% of total gas
sales, with autogas companies
representing about one third of the
total membership of the LPGA.
In the early days, we needed to
get some publicity to accelerate the
growth of autogas. Our first
achievement came in 1998, when
the Queen converted her fleet of
vehicles to lpg. We organised the
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LP GAS MAGAZINE APRIL/MAY 2006