Recommendation 9

HM Government Accepted

The Government recognises the need for a skilled, competent and robust supply chain to deliver the improvements to buildings necessary to meet our Net Zero targets. We understand that scale-up requires consistent, long term deployment streams, via government funding and regulation, so that the companies working in these markets can make the investments needed and individuals can choose to upskill. The Government has set a target of 600,000 heat pumps to be installed per year by 2028, which provides a clear target for supply chain growth. On 2nd March 2023, Government announced a £5m Heat Training Grant to support trainees in England taking training relevant to heat pumps and heat networks. The grant launched to trainees in July 2023 and is on course to support 10,000 training opportunities up to 2025. The grant is being offered at over 70 locations across England with accessibility across all regions. As part of the Energy Security Strategy, DESNZ launched a Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition worth up to £30m. This will aim to bring forward private investment in the heat pump supply chain in the UK of up to £200m, increasing the UK manufacturing capacity by 270,000 heat pumps or components and create or protect up to 1,000 low carbon jobs. The Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition will help accelerate the transition from fossil fuels such as natural gas and oil to cleaner, greener heat pump based heating systems. It will also contribute to our aim of realising a 30-fold increase in the number of heat pumps made in the UK by 2028. Making more heat pumps and components in the UK will increase product availability, reduce costs and contribute to greater supply chain resilience. There is no government target for wider retrofit supply chains. However, in 2021, the Construction Industry Training Board estimated that improving the fabric energy efficiency of every building in the country in need of retrofit will require 12,000 workers to be trained every year until 2025, where annual recruitment would need to increase to 30,000 per year in the subsequent five years. To support capacity building in the supply chain, Government invested £15m in training between 2020 and 2023 to deliver around 16,000 free or subsidised training opportunities in England through the Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition. The competition funded those aiming to be trained or upskilled as heat pump installers, insulation installers or retrofit coordinators and assessors. A further almost £14m has been committed through a new £8.85 Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition that launched in July 2023, which will deliver a further 8,000 insulation installation and retrofit professional qualifications, and a £5m Heat Training Grant which is expected to support 10,000 training opportunities relevant to heat pumps and heat networks up to 2025. The Government is also investing up to £5.3m in Regional Skills Pilots through the Local Net Zero Hubs to identify and test solutions to local energy efficiency and retrofit supply chain challenges, building capacity across England. The Government is also updating the existing apprenticeship frameworks to deliver the right skills to deliver Net Zero. A new Low Carbon Heating Technician apprenticeship launched in Autumn 2023 and work has started led by industry to develop the Occupational Standards for Retrofit and Insulation and Buildings Treatments, the first step to creating apprenticeships and T-levels for these important skills. Overall, Government policies will help support up to 480,000 green jobs across the UK in 2030. To tackle emerging and future workforce demands across the economy, the Government’s Green Jobs Delivery Group is focused on the creation of a Green Jobs Plan, for publication in the first half of 2024.