Low Carbon Heating Plan Bans Boilers from 2035

LOW CARBON heating systems such as heat pumps will be the only option to replacing gas fired combination boilers from 2035, under new government plans.

The plans are part of the Heat and Buildings Strategy to reduce the UK’s use of fossil fuels and exposure to global price spikes.

Grants of £5,000 will be available from April 2022 to homeowners installing low carbon heating systems that do not emit carbon through a £450 million 3-year Boiler Upgrade Scheme. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme will provide households with £5,000 grants when
they switch to an air source heat pump or £6,000 when they switch to a ground source
one.

Kwasi Kwarteng, Business and Energy Secretary, said: ““As the technology improves and costs plummet over the next decade, we expect low carbon heating systems will become the obvious, affordable choice for consumers. Through our new grant scheme, we will ensure people are able to choose a more efficient alternative in the meantime.”

By 2030 the government hopes industry will develop the technology to bring heat pump costs down. Other low-carbon technologies include ground source heat pumps and hydrogen-ready boilers.

Boiler Upgrade Scheme

The £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme is part of £3.9 billion for decarbonising heat and buildings. Over the next 3 years it will fund the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Home Upgrade Grant scheme, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Heat Networks Transformation Programme and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

There will be no single policy or technology that cuts carbon emissions, but a mix of technology, such as heat pumps and potentially heating appliances fuelled by hydrogen, alongside green projects like heat networks, that will combine to decarbonise heat in buildings over the next three decades. At present, there are over 14,000 heat networks in the UK, providing heating and hot water to around 480,000 consumers.

Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, said: “When the new scheme launches in April, Octopus Energy will install heat pumps for about the same cost as gas boilers.

“Octopus has already committed £10 million investment to its research and development and training centre dedicated to the decarbonisation of heat, and has begun training engineers at the rate of 1,000 per year.”

Government wants to reduce the price of electricity over the next decade by shifting levies away from electricity to gas. A call for evidence is expected to be published with decisions made in 2022.

Phil Hurley, Chair of the Heat Pump Association, said: “Sales this year already double those seen ever before. The Heat Pump Association’s recently-launched training course, [is] now ready to retrain the UK’s army of installers with the capacity to train up to 40,000 per year.”

Heating buildings accounts for 21% of UK carbon emissions. New, low-carbon heating solutions are needed to meet the UK’s legally-binding target to achieve net zero by 2050.

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