Recommendation 24

In September 2023, the government announced that some homes may be exempt from the planned phase-out of new fossil fuel boilers in 2035. The government estimated that around a fifth of households might be exempt. Examples of such homes could cover those requiring energy efficiency or electrical connection upgrades, those not connected to the gas grid, or those that lack space for a heat pump. We asked DESNZ which were the types of properties or regions where installing a heat pump might be harder. DESNZ explained that it would be most challenging to install heat pumps in densely populated urban areas and those without outside space, such as blocks of flats.42 We received written evidence from Fuel Poverty Action, which suggested that there were 2 million households with electric storage heating, often flats, that are unsuitable for heat pumps but suffer from high energy prices and therefore require more flexibility.43 Calor Gas, which supplies Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to off-gas grid properties, said in its written evidence that many of its customers live in harder to treat, remote properties—some of which have period features, planning restrictions, or constrained local electricity grid constraints— all of which prevent retrofit works from being carried out.44