Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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 enough engineers to support homes to install low carbon technologies. DESNZ considered that this could be done quickly through an existing skilled workforce.35 The Heat Pump Association and Heat Pump Federation, which represent manufacturers of heat pumps, however, called for more to be done to incentivise the upskilling of the existing heating engineer workforce.36 In its written evidence to us, Schneider Electric said that there were “inadequate” incentives for upskilling and training. It explained that the complexity of heat pump installations compared to traditional boilers and the current insufficient £500 training grant to cover lost income from four days of training discouraged installers from upskilling.37 Monitoring and evaluating progress
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.