Industry has reacted to the government’s announcement in the Spring Statement that gas boilers will be banned in new homes from 2025. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the responses to the news.
John Thompson – APHC
“My initial response to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement announcement to end fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025 is positive, and I believe it is good news for heating contractors.
“Whilst the government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change published a report in February which recommended ending the connection of new homes to the gas grid by 2025, I don’t believe the Chancellor’s Spring Statement goes that far as his proposals include increasing the amount of green gas in the National Grid to replace Natural Gas from the North Sea.
“Keeping new houses connected to the gas grid also potentially means that hundreds of thousands if not millions of houses will have access to an infrastructure to enable them to adopt hydrogen, which the CCC has previously concluded is a credible option to help decarbonise the UK energy system.
“However, the devil is always in the detail, so we will keep a watchful eye on how this policy progresses, and we need to see a detailed strategy which addresses the requirements for training and development and the inevitable investment which will be required by heating contractors to move towards installing and servicing new heating technologies.”
Graham Wright – HPA
“Although heat pumps can save considerable carbon emissions, this has not been recognised yet in building regulation and the UK needs a mechanism to enable us to take advantage of the 10 years of investment in renewable power generation, which has seen a significant reduction in the amount of CO2 emitted per kWh generated.
“Further investment in training is also required to enable the current cohort of boiler installers to be able to install renewable technologies, a task that the industry understands and will be working with all stakeholders to ensure we achieve.”
Stuart Fairlie – Elmhurst Energy
“We welcome the intention and the strategy that is coming from various government departments, notably BEIS, and now the Treasury. However, the actual details of the policies required to deliver this need to occur rapidly. We are aware that Part L of the building regulations is coming (England and Wales), which will introduce the first part of the future road map for new homes.
“We are also mindful that clean energy may not necessarily be ‘cheap’ energy and fuel poverty is a dimension of this that needs careful consideration. Also as indicated in Elmhurst’s 2019 Manifesto, we would like the transition periods of new building regulations to be looked at to ensure that new homes meet the new standards as quickly as possible.”
