Comment

The first full-year figures for take-up of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) turned out to be disappointing. The government had hoped that 30,000 households would snap up the £5,000-£6,000 grant to replace their fossil fuel boilers with a heat pump: but less than half that number did so.

There’s no single reason for the slow-take up but you can probably take your pick from the cost-ofliving crisis, lack of awareness and demand, and not enough heat-pump qualified heating engineers – who also need to be MCS-certified to enable households to access the grant. The much vaunted target of 600,000 heat pump installations by 2028 increasingly looks like a hard number to hit, despite the recent extension of the BUS.

So what will make heat pumps more attractive than trusty gas boilers? Lower prices? Less disruption? Or maybe hybrids could have a serious role to play in helping households move to lower-carbon heating. The combination of a small heat pump with a gas boiler is seen as a good stepping stone for households who want to take their first step into renewables. And they’re already eligible for grant support in Scotland: following suit in England and Wales could make a difference.

Nicki Shearer, editor

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