An expected surge in the energy price cap to an estimated £4,266 in January 2023 is not only causing distress for households but has also blown a hole in the government’s domestic heating strategy, warned the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) this week.
It has slammed the government’s Heat and Building Strategy, which includes a key commitment of mass heat pump rollouts in British homes instead of gas boilers.
Claiming the strategy is now “dead in the water”, EUA chief executive Mike Foster said the government is out of touch with the public.
He said: “Research dictates a quarter of UK households across the UK have no savings, with some areas like the West Midlands at 42%. To continue to have a policy that asks people in the middle of an energy crisis to fit a heat pump costing as much as £10,000 is frankly perverse. The government needs to urgently come up with a credible domestic heating strategy that gives us a roadmap to heat our homes and deliver Net Zero.”
The EUA pointed to data from the Energy Savings Trust indicating £450 million – the figure pledged towards heat pump subsidies – would provide 849,000 lofts with insulation.
Mike added: “We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis; bills are soaring and consumers hurting. Is now the time for taxpayers to pay a middle-class bung to fit a heat pump, when there are better ways of reducing bills for more people and cutting greater levels of carbon?
“We know Whitehall officials are worried it is failing. The total scheme, over three years, amounts to £450 million subsidising 90,000 heat pumps. That same amount means nearly one million homes could get free insulation, cutting bills by nearly £220 million a year. Surely that’s the greater prize in these difficult times?”