Neil Sawers, Grant UK's Commercial Technical Manager, provides a response to the Government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme due to be launched in April 2022.
Grant UK broadly welcomes the Government announcement that it plans to incentivise people to install low-carbon heating systems, such as air source heat pumps, in a simple and fair way as they replace their old boilers over the next few years.
In the plans outlined in a press release on the 19th October 2021, households look set to benefit from a one-off £5,000 Government grant through a £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme to help install low-carbon heating systems, part of more than £3.9 billion of new funding to decarbonise heat and buildings.
“Grant UK welcomes this step on the journey to Net Zero for the UK, however there are some barriers to overcome before we can truly begin to roll out some of the Government’s proposals,” explains Neil Sawers, Grant UK’s Commercial Technical Manager.
“Positive steps towards resolving the current skills shortage are being taken with both the CIPHE Low Temperature Heating Course in addition to the Heat Pump Association’s (HPA) LCL Heat Pump Training course, both of which will be available from Grant UK towards the end of this year. It is imperative that both the Government's funding initiatives and retraining/up-skilling of the workforce work in parallel.
“We are concerned that as yet there has been no announcement regarding other off gas heating alternatives, such as biofuels (HVO) and hybrid heating, which would have a major impact on reducing carbon emissions and are more practical in terms of an immediate roll out.
“Grant will continue to work with industry and Government to develop affordable solutions that focus not only on new-build and retrofit homes, but on the harder questions such as off-gas and hard to heat homes.”