The government’s push to get Britons to install heat pumps in their homes was today described as “shameful” and an “embarrassment” after it missed its installation target.
Just under 10,000 pumps were installed in England and Wales during the first year of the programme, which gives families a £5,000 voucher to help cover the cost.
This is despite an official target of 30,000 annual installations – whilst the scheme also provided only £60m in vouchers out of its £150m budget.
Air source heat pumps cost between £7,000 and £14,000 to buy and install, while a floor pump would cost between £15,000 and £35,000 – before any voucher, though Octopus Energy and British Gas are working on cheaper alternatives.
Critics say the pumps, which are usually placed outside at the back or side of the house, perform poorly in cold weather, especially if the house is not adequately insulated or the radiators are not large enough to give off enough heat.
Mike Foster, chief executive of Boiler Manufacturers Energy and Utilities Alliance trade body, said: ‘It takes a certain kind of genius to fail to part with £150m of taxpayer money and this miserable scheme appears to have done just that. When will the government actually listen to the people, the majority of whom simply cannot afford to buy a heat pump, subsidized or not?
“The scheme is just a taxpayer’s alms to those who don’t need it. It does little to save carbon compared to investing in sequestration. It doesn’t help people keep bills down. It takes the poor to give to the rich and that’s an embarrassment to politics.”
He added that it was likely that more taxpayer subsidized heat pumps would be installed in holiday homes in Cornish than in the whole of Birmingham, which was a “shame”.
Foster said: “People are still struggling with high energy bills, and insulating the homes of those who need it most should be the priority, and not giving your hard-earned taxpayer money to those who were going to buy a heat pump anyway. Total waste.
There was a time when a Conservative government prided itself on being fiscally prudent with taxpayers’ money. Now they’re just churning out money on a green spending spree. What makes this extravagance worse is that sequestration measures can save more carbon, lower bills and provide a sound economic investment for the treasury.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides government grants as an incentive to replace fossil fuel gas boilers with air or ground heat pumps.
The scheme was launched in May last year but has been described as a “taxpayer handout to those who don’t need it”.
Craig McKinlay, chair of the Net Zero Scrutiny group for House Conservative MPs, told the New York Times: The Daily TelegraphEven when the rich are bribed by the government to buy heat pumps, they refuse to do so.
A sensible net-zero approach involves allowing competition to offer environmentally friendly products that people actually want to buy because they work, rather than forcing them into inferior products that don’t.
It followed warnings from both the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and a House of Lords committee, warning that the 2028 target appeared unattainable.
The National Information Board, which advises the government, warned last month that ministers had made “little progress” in installing low-carbon heating systems.
But the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero have defended the scheme, saying heat pumps are “a proven and scalable option for decarbonising heat.”
And Rebecca Deb-Simkin of Octopus Energy, which makes and installs heat pumps, insisted that demand has risen “ten-fold” since the end of last year.
She told The Telegraph that uptake of such schemes “often starts slow and builds up over time as teething issues are fixed”.
Ms Deb-Simkin also said that Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) requirements and planning rules had created a bottleneck for heat pumps, but that was “changing rapidly”.
The government also aims to have smart meters installed in every home by 2025, although this is also under threat with only 50 per cent expected to be installed by the end of this year.
Gas boilers will be banned in new buildings from 2025 – and the government intends to completely ban the installation of new boilers from 2035.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: ‘We are determined to upgrade heating systems across the UK, expect footfall to rise and are fully confident that our target of 600,000 heat pumps by 2028 will be met.
Heat pumps are a proven and scalable option for heat decarbonisation. The action we take to support Britain, and to increase our energy security and independence, will reduce the cost of heat pumps, making them a more attractive option.
“Our boiler upgrade scheme will continue to provide grants of up to £6,000 towards the initial cost of installing a heat pump, and will be extended with new additional funding each year until 2028.”