The government has published the Heat & Buildings Strategy, its plan to drive down the cost of clean heating by incentivising householders to replace their old gas boilers with low-carbon alternatives, such as air source heat pumps
The long-awaited Heat & Buildings Strategy was published on 19 October. It will provide grants of £5,000 for households to replace gas boilers with low-carbon alternatives, such as heat pumps.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “As we clean up the way we heat our homes over the next decade, we are backing our brilliant innovators to make clean technology like heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as gas boilers – supporting thousands of green jobs.
“Our new grants will help homeowners make the switch sooner, without costing them extra, so that going green is the better choice when their boiler needs an upgrade.”
However, the funding pot of £450m over three years, enough to fund 90,000 pumps, has been criticised as insufficient given there are around 25m gas boilers in the UK.
PBC Today rounds up reaction to the strategy.
‘Fails to address key priorities’ – Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council
“Phasing out gas boilers from 2035 is not ambitious enough – there needs to be a clear cut-off date from 2030 to put us on track to meet net zero. And £5,000 grants will help just 30,000 households – a drop in the ocean in the context of the 900,000 annual installations we need to see by 2028. Worse still, there’s no targeted financial help at all for low-income households to embark on the journey to clean electric heating – meaning that the gap between rich and poor will widen, not close.
“Yet more concerning is the strategy’s failure to address several key priorities that UKGBC’s recent work has shown are non-negotiable to a net-zero carbon built environment by 2050. The most crucial of these include: a large-scale domestic retrofit programme; energy performance standards that rely on actual energy use; and an immediate drive to tackle embodied carbon emissions from construction and whole life.
“This Heat & Buildings Strategy provides scant further detail on any of these aspects and falls well short of what is required to make the transition to clean heat speedy and fair.”
‘More incentives needed’ – Gillian Charlesworth, chief executive of Building Research Establishment
“[The] Heat & Buildings Strategy is a good start, though it doesn’t provide the full set of policies we need to get the built environment on track for net zero. Moving away from gas for home heating is crucial if the UK is to meet its net zero targets and we are pleased to see clear recognition that heat pumps are the technology most likely to get us there, as well as new investment to support low-carbon improvements in public sector buildings and social housing.
“However, there are still billions of pounds missing from the government’s manifesto commitment of £9.2bn for decarbonising the built environment.
“We had hoped for a replacement to the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme to provide private home owner-occupiers with support for fabric first measures like insulation. Privately owned homes are the least energy efficient part of the UK housing stock and we would like to see fiscal incentives through council tax or VAT to encourage decarbonisation. These incentives, along with changes to business rates, will be equally vital for small businesses, who will also need a clear plan and support to transition to net zero.”
‘Support for heat pumps will drive growth’ – Phil Hurley, chair of the Heat Pump Association
“The heat pump industry warmly welcomes these bold steps forward. The industry is in the best shape it has ever been, with sales this year already double those seen ever before.
“[This] announcement will give industry and installers a huge confidence boost that now is the time to scale-up and retrain in preparation for the mass rollout of heat pumps, as well as making heat pumps more affordable, so all consumers can soon access and enjoy the benefits of reliable, low-carbon heating that stands the test of time.”
‘Hardly sets the world alight’ – Mike Foster, CEO of the Energy & Utilities Alliance
“The grant hardly sets the world alight and is insufficient to the scale of the challenge we face in terms of reaching net zero.
“It subsidises 30,000 heat pumps being installed each year and is well short of the support needed to get to 600,000 heat pumps installed each year by 2028. My suspicion is that the chancellor is putting the brakes on the prime minister’s flight of green fantasy.
“For the 4.5m households currently in fuel poverty, faced with rocketing bills and cuts to their universal credit, they must wonder what they have done wrong.
“The £5,000 grant only pays half the cost of a heat pump, so those in fuel poverty will see no warmth from the government’s generosity; instead, it is middle-class bung for people who were probably going to fit a heat pump anyway.”
‘Good but not good enough’ – Kate Blagojevic, head of climate at Greenpeace UK
“While £5,000 grants and a 2035 boiler phase-out date are a decent start, they aren’t ambitious enough to adequately tackle emissions from homes or support low-income households to switch. What’s also missing from these reports is any mention of a programme to insulate the UK’s millions of draughty homes. Low-carbon heating must go hand-in-hand with improving energy efficiency, you can’t have one without the other. Then it’s up to the chancellor to deliver the required £12bn a year in his Spending Review to make cutting emissions from homes a reality. Without these other key elements, the strategy will be like a builder who comes without his tools and simply won’t be up the job.”
‘Private rented sector needs attention’ – Russell Pedley, co-founder and director of Assael Architecture
“Architects have long been aware of the need to design low-carbon homes and this new strategy marks a major step forward when it comes to decarbonising England’s ageing housing stock. However, with much emphasis placed on incentivising households to install heat pumps, it is unclear what this means for private renters, who make up nearly a fifth of the country’s household occupiers.
“As England’s build-to-rent sector continues to grow year-on-year, more attention needs to be paid to the crucial role these homes can play in meeting the government’s decarbonisation targets while making up the shortfall in annual housing delivery. Modern methods of construction, used for many build-to-rent developments, can also help to bring in new talent from across the manufacturing sector to ensure we have the skills available to deliver a transition to low-carbon housing.”
‘Retrofitting the elephant in the room’ – Joseph Daniels, independent adviser to the government on decarbonising construction and CEO of Etopia Group
“Retrofitting is, by all estimations, the elephant in the room. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that more than £400bn will be required to reach a carbon-neutral built environment. That is a titanic burden on our national finances – almost half of the UK’s entire budget revenue in 2020 – which will require a lot more progressive thinking than the introduction of air and ground source heat pumps and a phasing out of gas boilers.
“Housing has the potential to be a net sequester of carbon if we seek to adopt and combine cutting-edge low-carbon technologies that are already in use.
“The UK’s gas-guzzling homes are now responsible for 20% of the total emissions. At Etopia Group, we’re calling for houses to feedback energy into the grid, to leverage isolated battery storage and to integrate renewable solar panel technologies. The Heat & Buildings Strategy must prioritise and incentivise best-in-class examples, as Homes England has already been championing.
“While we welcome higher standards, the incentives expected must recognise and reward the pioneers rising the tide to lift all boats.”
