Heat Pump Installers Brace for Boiler Grant Cut
Heat pump installers across the UK fear that the government is about to cut the grants that help households pay for their systems. The government is understood to be slashing the money available to subsidise heat pumps as it looks for savings in Wednesday's budget.
The boiler upgrade scheme, introduced in 2022, gives upfront grants of up to £9,000. They help owners replace fossil fuel and direct electric heating with low-carbon options such as heat pumps and biomass boilers.
"The foundation of the business"
Bill Tuck, operations director at Sustain Homes in Watford, began fitting air source heat pumps six years ago. Other heating engineers doubted the technology would take off, he said. Now they come to him for advice. About 75% of his customers use the grants to pay for their pump.
"It's the foundation of the business. If that's to go, it's extremely damaging," Tuck said. He added that his firm would do what it takes to keep jobs going but he did not know how.
Jim Lacey has installed renewables for 20 years with JLN Plumbing & Heating. "No one's going to save the planet if it really hits their pocket," he said. He argued that the pitch to customers, a few hundred pounds more than a normal boiler but big savings on energy, would be lost. He had not expected the grant to last for ever, but thought people would be weaned off gradually as costs fell.
Adam Killa, founder of Ask Renewables in Burscough, Lancashire, has seen this before. After the Renewable Heat Incentive closed in 2022, his firm went from six, seven or eight installs a week to zero. Customers told him a heat pump at £15,000 was hard to justify when a new boiler costs £3,000.
Apprentices and manufacturers
Installers say a cut would put their apprentices at risk, and with them the future of the industry. "Unless we start bringing the young generation through, we're going to have a huge lack of installers, repair engineers," Tuck said.
They fear manufacturers could go under too. According to the Heat Pump Association, about a third of heat pumps sold in the UK in 2024 were made domestically.
Heat in buildings accounts for nearly a fifth of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, government data shows. The UK has 3.5 heat pumps per 1,000 households. Norway, the global leader, has 632.
James Meadway, an economist and co-director of the green thinktank Verdant, said removing money from green jobs and manufacturing would damage Andy Burnham's mission to reindustrialise Britain.
A government spokesperson said: "We do not comment on budget speculation." The spokesperson added that the government remains committed to bringing down bills for families now.
Source: The Guardian