Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Decarbonising home heating

Status: Closed Opened: 22 Mar 2024 Closed: 29 May 2024 16 recommendations 23 conclusions 1 report

Home heating made up 18% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. In October of the same year, the Government published its Heat and Buildings Strategy, which has the ambition to end the installation of new fossil fuel boilers by 2035. It also commits to growing the supply chain for heat pumps to a …

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Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising home heating HC 653 26 May 2024 39 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

5 items
14 Recommendation Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising h… Accepted in Part

Conflicting advice on 'fabric first' approach creates confusion for households regarding insulation.

While some organisations advocated a ‘fabric first’ approach, which involves improving the thermal performance of materials in a building prior to installing a heat pump, others suggested that it is not necessary, making it difficult for households to determine cost- effective measures. In their written evidence to us, the Energy …

Government response. Government agrees with the recommendation and is making specific improvements to its Heat Pump Home Suitability tool, including advice on insulation and energy efficiency measures, to help households determine cost-effective options.
HM Treasury
16 Recommendation Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising h… Accepted in Part

Homeowners lack impartial, personalised advice for decarbonising homes, finding the process confusing.

In response to our question about how DESNZ ensured customers had access to proper information to make decisions about investment and running costs, the Department explained that it provided information through its online tools on heat pump suitability and retrofit options to make homes cheaper to heat, and a phone …

Government response. Government agrees with the recommendation and is making specific improvements to its Heat Pump Home Suitability tool to provide better information, while also stating broader improvements will be set out in the Warm Homes Plan.
HM Treasury
20 Recommendation Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising h… Accepted in Part

Insufficient incentives hinder retraining 110,000 gas heating engineers for heat pump installations.

We heard from DESNZ that a key challenge will be to retrain around 110,000 existing gas heating engineers to install heat pumps. Centrica, an energy company and low carbon heating installer, agreed that it was “vital” to focus on retraining as many engineers as possible to ensure that there are …

Government response. Government agrees with the recommendation and highlights existing training grants, updated apprenticeships, and the establishment of a new Office for Clean Energy Jobs, but defers decisions on future training incentives to the Spending Review 2025.
HM Treasury
21 Conclusion Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising h… Accepted in Part

DESNZ lacks a comprehensive, single measure for tracking total heat pump installations.

DESNZ does not have a single measure of the number of heat pump installations. Instead, it relies on data from a range of sources, including the number of heat pump 32 Q 21; DHH0008; DHH0010, Written evidence submitted by The Retrofit Academy, 29 April 2024; DHH0027, Written evidence submitted by …

Government response. The government commits to publishing quarterly data for retrofit installations using government funding. However, for new build and non-government funded installations, it is only investigating mechanisms to collect data and cannot yet commit to doing so.
HM Treasury
22 Conclusion Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising h… Accepted in Part

DESNZ is developing improved data series and dashboards to monitor heat pump progress.

DESNZ told us that it was looking to produce a more regular data series that it could publish by combining some of its data sources. It was also developing a dashboard that will show the number of heat pumps installed through each government scheme. The NAO found that regular monitoring …

Government response. The government agrees to publish quarterly data for retrofit installations funded by the government by Winter 2024. However, it is still investigating methods to collect and publish data for new build and non-government funded installations, unable to commit until a …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
24 Apr 2024 Ben Rimmington · Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, David Capper · Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Jeremy Pocklington CB · Ministry of Defence View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
8 May 2024 Correspondence from Richard Warren, Director of Public Affairs, The Kensa Group…