House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee: Boiler Upgrade Scheme Enquiry

The Ground Source Heat Pump Association are elated that the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee supports the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) and finds that significant changes must be swiftly made to give the heat pump industry the opportunity to deliver on the original policy intent.

Laura Bishop, Chair of the GSHPA said: “As we are all aware within our industry the BUS at the moment is the beacon of government policy with its remit to decarbonise domestic heating, but the BUS’s first year of operation has been challenging for all the reasons outlined by the Lords Committee.”

“The Committee’s findings align precisely with what our members and their end users are telling us. Specifically, homeowners and landlords need better information on heat pump technologies that are available now, and this needs to be underpinned by an EPC framework that appropriately recognises the benefits of heat pump systems.”

“Given the problems with the launch of the scheme and the urgency needed to mitigate against climate change it is inappropriate for HM Treasury to clawback any underspend. We call upon Government to ensure that the unspent funds should be used to extend the scheme in year two. The GSHPA is pleased the enquiry has recognised the strategic benefits of ground source and networked heat pumps stating “ground source heat pumps can deliver greater energy efficiency and so should also be adequately incentivised”. The GSHPA supports this recommendation and calls for the underspend in this financial year to specifically increase support for ground-source deployment to match the demand proven under the previous Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive.”

It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that the UK lands on the best combination of policy levers and financial instruments so that heat pumps can help deliver the country’s Net Zero ambitions. Specifically ground source is a more discrete technology, shows greater efficiencies, puts less demand on the electrical grid and has a longer lifespan than air source with loops lasting in excess of 60 years and can also provide free cooling.