Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Conclusion 22
Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes
Published 3 Feb 2022
Paragraph 90
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Decarbonising heat in homes All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
It is vital that the heating and energy efficiency workforce has the capacity and skills required for the job at hand. This will require training new workers as well as supporting existing workers in the home heating sector. It is imperative that the 56 Decarbonising Heat in Homes Government actively supports and encourages the upskilling of workers, with a commitment to prioritising the existing home heating workforce, through local, work-based training schemes. We expected the Heat and Buildings Strategy to provide a strategic direction on how the heating workforce would be upskilled and we waited a long time for this to be published. However, the strategy failed to adequately deal with this issue.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes (HC 1038), paragraph 90, 3 February 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 May 2022 (deadline 3 April 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response sets out its approach through the Heat and Buildings Strategy, agreeing with some recommendations, declining to set an end-date in legislation for gas boiler installations or to bring forward the Future Homes Standard, and stating that Ministers "cannot mandate" the Committee on Fuel Poverty.
- On bringing the Future Homes Standard forward to 2023, the government says the "current timeline" delivers on net zero commitments. It intends to consult in 2023, legislate in 2024 and implement fully in 2025.
- On a legislated gas boiler end-date, it points to its intention that by 2035 at the latest it will no longer install new natural gas boilers. It says that "once costs have come down and consumer choices are clear", it will seek to regulate.
- On heat networks, it is "committed to legislating" within this Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity, with Ofgem appointed as regulator for Great Britain and a price cap power for the Secretary of State "in the future".
- On the 600,000 annual heat pump installations ambition by 2028, it states it "has not set any interim targets", and points to funding, market intervention and regulation, including the £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme.