Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 28
Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes
Published 3 Feb 2022
Paragraph 112
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the new Boiler Upgrade Scheme announced in the Heat and Buildings Strategy. To ensure the success of the scheme, we recommend that in the delivery of the scheme, the Government must: 1) explain what lessons have been learnt from various failed past schemes and how this scheme will therefore be delivered differently, 2) focus public funds on lower income households and homes which will require the most expensive and/or complicated installations to decarbonise. This will require Decarbonising Heat in Homes 57 a fundamental rethink on the support packages currently available. The boiler replacement grants of £5,000 or £6,000 will mean lower income households cannot switch to low carbon heating, when the overall cost may be as high as £15–20,000. 3) incentivise banks to create low-cost loan products for consumers, 4) partner with industry and trade unions to create jobs and training pathways, and 5) ensure the scheme lasts for at least a decade instead of merely a few years.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes (HC 1038), paragraph 112, 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.