Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 3
Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising home heating
Published 26 May 2024
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Decarbonising home heating All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
DESNZ has made good progress in increasing the number of trained heat pump installers, but it faces a huge challenge to make sure there are enough installers to achieve its target to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028. DESNZ reports that it is on track towards meeting its target to have 12,000 trained heat pump installers by 2025, with 7,000 installers trained so far. The Heat Pump Association estimates, however, that there will need to be 33,700 trained heat pump installers by 2028 in order to meet DESNZ’s overall installations target. DESNZ recognises that there is more to be done to achieve this and that it needs to keep investing in training heat pump installers after 2025, but decisions for future training grants will be for the next spending review. A key challenge will be to retrain around 110,000 existing gas heating engineers to be able to install heat pumps. Although DESNZ considers this could be done quickly, this is nonetheless a large number of people who will need to be retrained given the number of installers it has trained so far. Recommendation 3: DESNZ should, as part of its Treasury Minute response, set out what actions it will take to increase the number of heat pump installers after
From: Public Accounts Committee, Thirty-Seventh Report - Decarbonising home heating (HC 653), 26 May 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 July 2025 (deadline 26 July 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on decarbonising home heating, some with target dates still "to be confirmed", and disagrees with one, on gas network decommissioning.
- On heat pump running costs, the government agrees with the recommendation, but implementation is "dependent on further steers from new ministers" and no date is set. It says it "is considering" the best way to bring costs down.
- On installer numbers, the government agrees, with a target of Summer 2025. It says decisions on future training support "will form part of Spending Review 2025 (SR25)", as the Heat Training Grant is funded until April 2025.
- On data, the government agrees to publish quarterly data on retrofit installations using government funding, with a target of Winter 2024. It "cannot commit" to publishing data on new builds or unfunded installations "until a suitable mechanism is found".
- The government disagrees with the recommendation to set out gas network decommissioning arrangements by end-June 2025, saying a full assessment "will require more time". It says it is "currently exploring ways" to facilitate the transition.