Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Recommendation 35
Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes
Published 3 Feb 2022
Paragraph 149
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)
Currently, there are no sufficiently robust consumer protections in place for the heating sector, especially for poor quality installations. The Heat and Buildings Strategy failed to set out a robust consumer protections framework that will build consumer confidence and trust in energy companies and the heating sector as a whole. To protect consumers, a robust framework of protections must be brought in for the heating sector to ensure that standards are maintained and that, where failures take place, consumers have options for recourse. We also recommend that the Government should give Ofgem the responsibility to regulate companies and providers in the heating sector, as well as the powers and resources it will need to introduce and enforce robust consumer protections. The Government should also establish an ombudsman process to manage individual complaints.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Seventh report - Decarbonising heat in homes (HC 1038), paragraph 149, 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.