Absolutely!
My plumber tells me condensing boilers aren't really efficient unless you have a big enough house, otherwise the time lapse from the water leaving the boiler to coming back into it isn't long enough for the boiler to work as it is intended, yet he is obliged to fit condensing boilers in all properties. He also makes the point that the life expectancy of a condensing boiler is about 10 years, whereas an old fashioned boiler would last at least twenty, so taking into account the cost of having to build twice as many boilers and transport them and dispose of the old boilers he is rather sceptical of the green credentials of that bit of regulation.
I think it's the same with everything, my freezer, god bless it, is coming up for 25years old. Heaven knows what letter energy rating it would get, probably in the lower half of the alphabet, yet it does its job and hasn't needed any replacement parts or anything. (please don't die after I've been singing your praises freezer.) My recent purchase of a fridge two and a half years ago, energy rating A, has already gone through two thermostats, which between them took five visits to rectify, and quite honestly the next time it breaks I wil probably junk it cos for three hundred quid it's not worth the hassle or cost of the repair.
Michael (?) Crighton wrote an excellent novel called 'State of Fear', in which he posits that the powers that be rule us by inducing anxiety, e.g. the spread of communism, the Cold War, global warming, international terrorism, with celebrities and talking heads encouraged to jump onto the bandwagon to spread the word about the next impending disaster and keep the public interest alive, as it were. I think the man was on to something. Our government claims to want to reduce carbon emissions, yet it isn't prepared to take a stand against proposals for a third runway at Heathrow or widening of motorways and new roads being built.