Government called to ‘supercharge’ heat pump installation

The government has been told it needs to significantly ramp up plans to install heat pumps in UK homes in a report by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee.

Recommendations included how the government can meet its target to install 600,000 heat pumps by 2028, how expensive retrofit costs could be minimised and how tenants can manage the transition to low carbon heating.

The government’s response to the report showed ministers had accepted several of the recommendations made by the Committee, including putting Ofgem in charge of regulating heat networks, where groups of properties share a heat system.

The BEIS Committee recommended the acceleration of the implementation of the Future Home standard to 2023 over 2025, but the government did not change this, committing to launching a consultation in 2023 and full implementation by 2025.

A recommendation for more workers to be trained up was accepted by the government, which said ‘7,000 training opportunities will be created per year’ through Skills Bootcamps.

These will be run in collaboration with local governments, to help people to get work in energy efficiency and low carbon supply chains.

The importance of energy efficiency in homes for decarbonisation was also accepted by the government.

However, no new proposals were made to target this area, it just said a ‘fabric first approach’ would be taken in improving energy efficiency in buildings.

Darren Jones MP, Chair of the BEIS Committee, said: ‘With the cost of everything from food to electricity, gas and petrol going up, and with further energy price rises due in October, the Government must supercharge its efforts to decarbonise the way we heat our homes to help reduce bills and carbon emissions. 

‘However, the Future Homes Standard – which will require housing developers to better insulate new homes and install low carbon heating systems – will still not come into effect until 2025. This will put many new homeowners and tenants in the scandalous position where they have a new home but will be asked to fork out thousands of pounds to do the work that the developer should have done in the first place.  

‘For people living in properties that currently exist, ministers still haven’t dealt with the energy elephant in the room and brought forward a scheme that is open to all homeowners and tenants who need to insulate their homes and use less energy. This must be dealt with urgently. 

‘Ridiculously, the fact that home insulation needs to be completed before you can apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme means that many households won’t be able to access the voucher schemes already announced by Ministers in the first place.’

Photo by Nadine Marfurt