"Replacing gas boilers with green alternatives could cost homeowners up to £25,000, MPs and peers have warned, as the Government announced drastic new emissions cuts.
Boris Johnson on Tuesday committed the UK to cutting carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, compared to 1990 levels, as recommended by the Government’s climate advisory body.
The Government’s climate change advisers have called for a phase-out of new gas boilers by 2033.
The Government has committed to installing 600,000 heat pumps, which work like a refrigerator in reverse and run on electricity, in homes every year from 2028.
Millions of the UK’s draughty homes will also need to be better insulated in order to preserve energy and keep homes at optimal warmth with low-carbon heating.
Adair Turner, a former head of the CBI... , on Tuesday said homeowners faced a bill of £10-15,000 just for insulation, before the cost of a heat pump.
He said “higher income people” should be expected to “simply sign a cheque for that”, but more help would be needed for those on lower incomes.
Philip Dunne MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said the costs of insulation were being underestimated by the Government, and could reach more like £20,000, with higher costs in older, rural homes, and significant disruption during retrofitting.
Mr Dunne said the policy would be “a blight on a lot of houses”, without any extra support.
The Government has been criticised for scrapping its flagship £1.5billion Green Homes Grant, which offered homeowners up to £10,000 toward insulation costs, just months after it was introduced.
... The £1.5bn Green Homes Grant was far too small to make any difference.
If he bothered to get his calculator out, he could work out that an average cost of £25000 per home amounts to £675 billion, all needing to be spent in the next ten years or so.
Where on earth does he think this money will come from."
Some interesting comments from readers:
"You can’t ‘simply’ internally insulate any property anyway, the knock on effect is that nearly every attachment, fitting, decoration, service etc. needs to be altered or redone. It’s a massive job that would mean people moving out. External insulation is less complicated/disruptive but still a major undertaking. The smart meter roll-out has been going for 10 years and isn’t done – replacing 1 small item, and they expect to remodel the entire UK housing stock, laughable."
"Our Energy Minister (an oxymoron surely?), Anne-Marie Trevlyan, believes that the government’s latest carbon reduction measures are a shining example to the rest of the world which will inspire them ‘to follow suit’. Aside from being out with the fairies on this point, I wonder whether she has actually deduced the carbon footprint of mining, manufacturing, processing, and transportation of all the materials required to roll out this ‘Hail Mary’ heating system on a national scale? The sheer quantity of metals, fossil fuels and hydrocarbons required will be mammoth not to mention the potential negative environmental impacts of such a huge transformation. And where are all the qualified sparkies and plumbers etc going to come from to install them? Lastly, and probably most importantly of all, where’s the electricity going to come from to power these systems? We surely are in La La land."
"Got to love the comment, “higher income people” should be expected to “simply sign a cheque for that” … what do they class as “higher income people” ? I am considered Higher income but there is no way on this earth I could afford to fork out £25K! this government and well most governments since 1998 ... seem to think that if you earn a certain amount your rich? I have a decent size family home but it comes with a mortgages and bills like the rest, which leaves me to have to budget all the same as I did 20years ago when I lived in a small 1 bed!"
"It should be obvious at this point that the damage wreaked by the preposterous Net Zero measures completely dwarfs any damage that climate change might do in a country that is generally too cold most of the time. ... My advice invest in a warm coat."
"Where does this government think they are going to find the engineers to accomplish their ridiculous programme. How long will it take to upgrade a typical street of terraced houses. Where will the charging points be located in the average street. The whole idea is preposterous ... "
Top comment on the Telegraph’s take on the story:
“I am a gas safe engineer and I also install heat pumps and renewable energy products and I can tell anyone reading this that gas is going absolutely nowhere for the foreseeable future. There simply isn’t anything on the market (irrespective of cost) that could replace a gas combi boiler in terms of space used and output. The huge additional use of electricity for any renewable energy simply isn’t there within the grid either, it’s a huge problem already when we fit heat pumps. Often there isn’t the power coming through the grid and this will only get worse.