Government’s “green day” announcements underwhelming and a missed opportunity.

By GSHPA

Categories: News, Press

The GSHPA has today described the Government’s “green day” announcements as a missed opportunity and “underwhelming” for the UKs ground source heat pump sector.

To date, the UK government has simply failed to grasp the potential of this proven technology, which has been widely adopted across Continental Europe, and is critical to delivering the Government’s existing heat pump target. Today could have been a major pivotal moment in the UKs transition to low carbon heat, but instead there is a disappointing lack of urgency around the limited measures announced to boost the heat pump sector.

Laura Bishop, Chair of the GSHPA said: “Today has been a missed opportunity and underwhelming for the UK’s ground source heat pump sector. Although we welcome the commitment to heat electrification, the £30 million heat pump accelerator fund and announcements on ‘rebalancing’ bills and the BUS, much uncertainty remains. Long overdue changes to energy levies for example are not expected for at least another 20 months, which may yet be affected by General Election timing.”

Laura added: “It’s vital that the Government acts much more quickly on key issues such as the rebalancing of domestic energy bills, more support for ground source heat pumps in the BUS to 2025, and the treatment of our technology in building regulations, if the UK is going to get anywhere close to delivering its 600,000 heat pumps per year target. Sadly, there was little in today’s announcements to reassure the sector that the Sunak government is really serious about delivering that major target in just five years time.”