Experts Say Healey's Cuts Put Green Heating Targets at Risk
Britain is unlikely to hit its green heating targets after the cuts announced by John Healey this week, experts have warned. Critics of former energy secretary Ed Miliband say his green agenda is being dismantled.
The chancellor announced more than £3bn of cuts to the energy department's budget on Wednesday. Much of the money will help pay for higher defence spending.
Heat pump scheme squeezed
The biggest single item is £741m taken from the boiler upgrade scheme, which helps households replace gas boilers with electric heat pumps. A typical household can claim £7,500, and about 60,000 a year are fitted in existing homes. The government's target is 250,000 a year by 2030.
Funding was to rise from £400m this year to just over £700m by 2029-30. Ministers now say it will rise only in line with inflation. Installations are therefore likely to stagnate or grow much more slowly than planned.
Andrew Sissons, a director at the charity Nesta, said it was "very difficult to see how we can hit our clean heating targets". He said it was even possible that a Labour government would be the first to miss targets it signed up to in the current carbon budget.
Ed Matthew of the thinktank E3G called the cuts "disappointing – so frustrating". He said the UK was behind many other countries on heat pumps.
The warm homes plan lost about £250m. Hydrogen schemes lost £500m and carbon capture and storage £200m. Miliband had championed all of these projects.
Government defends its direction
Healey also said renewable projects would in future be approved only if they could be shown to cut costs and were ready to connect to the grid. Officials say the 2030 clean power target still stands, though many experts doubt it can be met under the new system.
One government source called it "probably the most significant shift we have seen in energy policy since we came to office". Paul Ovenden, a former adviser to Keir Starmer, said the energy capital budgets were being raided to fund defence.
Allies of Miliband and his successor Miatta Fahnbulleh reject the idea of a retreat. They point to Healey's long-term plan to move green costs from bills to taxpayers and to the aim of loosening the link between electricity and gas prices.
An energy department spokesperson said £110bn of private investment had been announced over two years. The department says it remains committed to the heat pump target.
Source: The Guardian