Government revamping heat and buildings strategy

The government is revamping its heat and buildings strategy, amidst reports that flagship proposals to ban new gas boiler installations from 2035 onwards are being watered down.

The strategy, which the energy white paper said was due to be published in the first quarter of this year, has been pushed back until next month at the earliest, business and energy secretary of state Kwasi Kwarteng revealed on Monday during interviews to mark the publication of the latest report from the UN’s climate change panel.

The Times reported on Wednesday (11 August) that previously mooted plans to stop the sale of new gas boilers from 2035 have been downgraded. A minister told the paper that the ban is being reframed as an “ambition”.

Utility Week has been told that the strategy is being redrafted to address concerns amongst Conservative politicians about the potential cost and disruption that the proposal s could mean for consumers.

Alongside not pressing ahead with the 2035 ban on gas boilers, which is in line with the advice of the Climate Change Committee, the government is also understood to be offering higher subsidies for new low carbon heating systems than the £4,000 maximum Clean Homes Grants currently being proposed.

Boris Johnson told MPs last month that converting home heating is “very difficult to pull off”

Commenting on the Times report, Mike Foster, chief executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, said: “Softening the language over a boiler ban is a very sensible move for the government to make and equally in terms of delivery of policy on the ground.

“If we can get a date from government to mandate hydrogen ready boilers from 2025, by 2040 we could have completely switched the stock of boilers in UK homes from currently natural gas to hydrogen ready status.

“If you have hydrogen ready boilers in people’s homes, it gives flexibility to decarbonise the network and switch away from natural gas to hydrogen in a similar way to the digital television switch-over took place.”

Bean Beanland, president of the Ground Source Heat Pump Association, said that the focus on a far-off target date for banning new boiler risked distracting attention from more immediate steps that must be taken to decarbonise home heating. “

He said: “With the best will in the world, none of us have any idea about the prospects for green gas in the 2030s and 40s.”

Doug Parr, chief scientist and policy director at Greenpeace, said: “The maths of a net zero date mean that gas boilers shouldn’t be installed after 2035. MPs and others who call for a delay are potentially allowing homeowners to install stranded assets, which is neither fair nor helpful.

“However, the arguments over dates are not a substitute for immediate action. If the money and policy to ramp up heat pump installations isn’t delivered this Autumn in the upcoming building strategy and the spending review, we’re not going to hit any target dates.”