Mike Foster, chief executive of EUA, has called on ministers to scrap the Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM), also known as the boiler tax, instead of hiding behind another consultation.
He said that the government’s own parliamentary answer has effectively acknowledged that not a single additional heat pump fitted in 2025/26 can be shown to be the direct result of the CHMM
Asked how many additional heat pumps had been installed as a direct result of the CHMM, ministers gave no figure at all. Mike noted that they pointed to a general rise in Boiler Upgrade Scheme installations and said a multi-year evaluation of the policy is only now in its inception phase.
For the EUA, that is a clear admission that the policy is failing on its own terms. If the government cannot point to a single heat pump installed because of the CHMM, Mike said it should stop forcing households replacing broken boilers to pay a tax to fund a policy that is plainly not delivering.
According to EUA analysis, the boiler tax is increasing costs for families while doing nothing to boost installations. The association has argued that the real barrier is not supply but demand. Heat pumps remain far more expensive than boilers, it cited, many homes are not suitable without major disruption and households are understandably reluctant to take on higher upfront costs in the middle of a cost-of-living squeeze.
Mike said: “This answer tells its own story. Ministers were asked a simple question: how many extra heat pumps were installed directly because of the CHMM? They could not name one. Not one. Instead, they fell back on a different scheme and promised a review somewhere down the line. That is not evidence of success; it is an admission of failure.
“EUA has been warning from the start that this policy punishes households without addressing the real reasons people are not choosing heat pumps. The government should stop passing costs onto consumers, stop penalising manufacturers for consumer choices, and drop the boiler tax now rather than wait for yet another consultation to confirm what everyone can already see.”