Government heat pump scheme branded ‘exclusive offer’

A Labour shadow minister has branded the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme to kickstart the heat pump market an “exclusive offer”, which will only benefit the well off.

Under the three-year £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which has been running since April, households can access £5,000 grants to help with the cost of installing low-carbon heating systems

Bill Esterson, who is a member of the opposition’s shadow Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) team, said: “They’ll give you £5,000 towards your air source heat pump. The trouble is they cost rather more. Only the well off and the wealthy can afford to buy and install a heat pump, so this is an exclusive offer from this government.”

Unless homes are energy efficient, any heat pumps installed could prove an “expensive electric heater”, he told a fringe meeting at Labour’s annual conference.

“Even then not every home is going to be suitable for an air source or ground source heat pump and that’s where hydrogen comes in.”

Given that some homes will be unsuitable for heat pumps, hydrogen will have “a place” in domestic heating, Esterson added.

Tony Balance, director of regulation and strategy at Cadent, told the same meeting that the company is “not negative” about heat pumps.

“They’re going to be a technology that gets used in people’s homes. The real question is to what extent are heat pumps going to be the source of people’s heating.

“It’s really difficult to see a world where we’re wholly reliant on electricity.

“There’s bound to be a whole bunch of properties where it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to electrify,” he said, adding that using hydrogen for home heating would lessen the strain on the electricity grid when demand is high and supply is constrained.

Decarbonisation of heat will be one of the themes at the Utility Week Forum on 8-9 November in London. Find out more here.