Proactive Investors - UK government advisory body the National Infrastructure Commission has recommended investing billions of pounds in heat pump subsidies and installing free heat pumps in low-income households.
The recommendations follow Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision last month to delay the ban on gas-fired boilers by nearly a decade to 2035.
Following a five-year review, the National Infrastructure Commission laid out its recommendations today to upgrade the country’s energy and transport networks over three decades.
As part of its assessment, the advisory body recommended that the government invest £1.3 billion each year until 2035 to install heat pumps in low-income households.
That would include additional support for energy efficiency improvements and a devolution to local authorities to manage related energy usage programmes.
It also recommended investing £1.9 billion each year until 2035 to provide subsidies of £7,000 for every household installing a heat pump.
The investment would be tapered over time, as costs fall, and include zero per cent financing for the remaining costs.
The Commission recommended a further £3.2 billion be spent on improving energy efficiency and installing heat pumps in social housing and the public sector estate.
It ruled out hydrogen for heating homes, saying it was better used in power generation and industrial decarbonisation.
Among the recommendations were to review rail priorities in the North and Midlands after the second phase of HS2 fell through and introduce compulsory water metering.
Gas-fired boilers were going to be phased out from 2026 under net zero plans unveiled by the government earlier this year.
That would have required an urgent overhaul of national infrastructure and for households to replace boilers with heat pumps, such as ground-source heat pumps that involve the installation of underground pipes.