Experts are already warning of shortcomings in the government’s latest Green initiative, banning new boilers from 2035 and offering £5,000 grants towards the installation of heat pump alternatives.
Landlords, as well as owner occupiers, are entitled to the £5,000 grants which will become available from April next year; initially this is aimed at driving up the volume of heat pumps being manufactured and fitted, aiming to reduce their costs which are estimated at up to £16,000 each.
David Adams, spokesperson for the Green Stamp Duty Incentive Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, says: “Whilst support for the installation of circa 30,000 per annum heat pumps for the next three years is welcome …. we must see bolder measures than those outlined today.
“The current issues facing the retrofit market – the lack of accredited installers, patchy nationwide provision of green measures and the skills gap – are rooted in an uncertainty around the market’s longevity born out of the grant-driven boom-bust past history.
“Without also instigating a long-term driver of demand, the progress made through this boiler upgrade scheme will collapse again when the three years are up. We mustn’t repeat the experience of the past insulation and photo voltaic programmes which didn’t produce a lasting legacy of delivery capability and where home retrofit has returned to a niche activity.”
Adams’ group, which advocates a stamp duty incentive for landlords and owners to retrofit energy efficient devices, has recently claimed that research shows only one in six people are planning to improve the energy efficiency of their home over the next five years.
And Ross Counsell, chartered surveyor and director at GoodMove, says there £5,000 sounds ambitious but it’s simply not sufficient.
“You just have to look at the poorly thought out Green Homes Grant which left administration costs of over £1,000 for some homeowners according to the National Audit Office. For many low-income families, this sum is extremely damaging and sees just how poorly thought out and underfunded these schemes have been" he claims.
“Furthermore, the current energy crisis has starkly demonstrated just how lagging the UK is on future-proofing homes from fossil-fuel dependency. Unfortunately, the lack of government investment in insulation and heat-pump technology means the UK has some of the oldest and leakiest housing stock in Western Europe.
“The initiative of these efforts to future proof homes is a step in the right direction for the government. However, a concise roadmap to phase out new boilers out by 2035, with significant funding would have been much more effective.”
Independent climate think tank E3G says the 2035 phase-out date for new fossil fuel boilers is "a world-leading achievement" but that the funding offered by the government is insufficient.
"On energy efficiency alone, the public investment announced today falls £2bn short of what was pledged in the Conservative manifesto to 2025" says a spokesman.
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Hopeless incompetence , that is a surprise
Why do people always talk about funding, Government don’t have funding which means more tax, so they want someone’s else’s money.
The article mentions about green homes grants that cost owners £1’000, in administration. What about the £1’200, / £1’400 Administration Councils costs for HMO Licensing that are paid for by Private LL’s. Then the LL has to pay his own Administration costs on top of this which are high and time consuming and never mention by Authorities or media on this for funding we do it for nothing. The LL is forced by Law to do this plus all the work, Labour and materials as well all for free.
Absolutely true.
People are gullible and can't see that £5k grants to 25m homes will require £5k (plus £1,000 admin cost) from each householder in extra tax.
Heads you pay, tails you pay more!!
This will be another case where those investing in property will fund those who just rent
As ever the Government haven't thought through the practicalities! Some homes aren't suitable for heat pumps, where a heat pump replaces a combi boiler a hot water cylinder will need to be fitted, most people have had these taken out or newer builds didn't have them in the first place. Heat pumps in Coastal areas already have a short life span due to the salt air
90,000 boilers over 3 years. What about the other 27 million households?
More knee-jerk politics, who do the Government think their conning ? ( aside from Tenants )
I HAVE HAD A HEAT PUMP SYSTEM INSTALLED INTO MY DETACHED HOUSE FOR OVER 4 YEARS NOW.
THE HOUSE IS WELL INSULATED BY CURRENT STANDARDS AND I ALSO HAVE 16 PANELS ON THE ROOF GENERATING POWER.
THE HEAT PUMP WORKS WELL IN THE WARMER TIMES OF THE YEAR AND THE HOUSE IS ALWAYS COMFORTABLE. BUT WHEN THE COLDER MONTHS APPROACH THE HEAT PUMP HAS TO WORK SO VERY HARD. IT IS THEN VERY NOISY AND EXPENSIVE TO OPERATE.
ONCE TEMPERTURES GET DOWN TO 5/6 DEG YOU NEED TO PUT ON ELECTRIC HEATERS ALL OVER THE HOUSE TO KEEP WARM, WHEN YOU ARE UNDER -1/+1 THE SYTEM IS VERY POOR IN HEATING A STANDARD BUILT HOUSE DESIGNED WITH CONVENTINAL WATER RADIATORS.
I SHOULD HAVE KEEP MY ORIGINAL OIL HEATING BOILER IT WOULD BE CHEAPER TO RUN.
I had a bio mass boiler fitted 6 yrs ago, when I get my last RHI payment next yr it will be coming out and an oil boiler fitted '' GREEN DOES NOT WORK''.
The maths is nonsense. 1) very few people will cash in this £5k voucher as suppliers will raise their prices by that and more by April blaming Brexit, HGV drivers, the fuel crisis, inflation, whatever is trending. 2) The 2035 target to remove gas boilers is bonkers (this article talks about new boilers, but I have seen press that talks about existing as well), does noone fact check the proposals. 25,000,000 homes in what will be 10 years after this initiative. Thats 2.5m replacements a year, 480,000 a week, 69,000 a day, every day including weekends for 10 years! They wont be able manufacture a fraction of those units in that time, let alone fit them, and the retro fitting to Britains Victorian housing stock is going to take decades with the extra insulation and vacant possession required, and thats all before we ask, who is going to pay the £500 billion its going to cost to do that at around £20k a property. If this is done by 2100 I would be amazed, it certainly wont happen in my lifetime.
Fantastic and rational observation of the hard facts (above). The govt have a habit of making all manner of proclamations without any thought at all to how in the real world it can happen. I tend to take what they say with a rather large pinch of salt, they have form in this regard.
Most in government have never lived in the real world, and never will, how sad.
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