UK ‘heat pump scheme’ failure to deliver 1/3 of promise

Annual figures have laid bare the extent of the UK ‘heat pump scheme’ failure, as critics argue ‘it takes a certain type of genius to fail to give away £150 million of taxpayers’ money.’ 

According to numbers from Downing Street, the initiative – which offered £5,000 to people who wanted to swap their outdated gas or oil boilers for modern heat pumps – had a target of helping 30,000 customers make the switch. After 12 months, less than 10,000 applicants had received a funding cheque, with the majority of the £150m budget now returned to the treasury.

‘It takes a certain type of genius to fail to give away £150 million of taxpayers’ money and this wretched scheme looks like it has done just that. When will the Government actually listen to the people, the majority of whom simply cannot afford a heat pump, subsidised or not,’ said Mike Foster, CEO of the Energy and Utilities Alliance. ‘The scheme is simply a taxpayer handout to those who don’t need it, to keep the secretly funded heat pump lobby quiet. It does little for carbon saving compared to investment on insulation. It does not help people keep bills low.

‘More taxpayer-subsidised heat pumps have probably been fitted in Cornish holiday homes than the whole of Britain’s second city, Birmingham. That is shameful. People are still hurting with high energy bills, insulating the homes of those most in need should be the priority, not giving hard-earned taxpayers’ cash to those who were going to buy a heat pump anyway. It’s utterly wasteful,’ he continued. ‘There was a time when a Conservative Government took pride in being fiscally prudent with taxpayers’ money. Now they just ladle out the cash on a green spending spree. What makes this profligacy even worse is that insulation measures could save more carbon, keep bills down and provide a sound economic investment for the Treasury.’

Last month, our sister publication, Air Quality News, reported on an analysis suggesting lack of effective Government publicity had led to the failure of the boiler upgrade scheme. 

More on UK boiler upgrade scheme:

https://environmentjournal.online/energy/house-of-lords-boiler-upgrade-scheme-is-failing-to-deliver/