What is the £5000 boiler heat pump payment?
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Energy industry experts have called for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to scrap the UK’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) which subsidises the installation of low-carbon heating systems, and instead offer support to Britons struggling to afford spiralling energy bills. But do you agree? Vote in our poll.
The £450million scheme aims to make heat pumps a more affordable option for households replacing their heating systems and help the Government meet net-zero targets goals by 2050.
The BUS offers households grants of up to £6,000 towards the installation of heat pumps and up to £5,000 off air source heat pumps and some biomass gas boilers.
Mike Foster from the Energy and Utilities Alliance criticised the scheme as an “immoral waste of money” and argued that it is only supporting rich homeowners.
He told Express.co.uk last week: “The Government should absolutely be looking at the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. It is an immoral waste of money. It is taxpayer’s money that is being given to people who by definition do not struggle to pay their bills.”
Latest figures from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show that the BUS has helped fund 2,891 projects in the first five months up to the end of September 2022.
Mr Foster added: “The average cost of a heat pump under the BUS according to BEIS is £13,000. The Government will pay the first £5,000, and the homeowner will pay the other £8,000.
“Every year, 30,000 get a boon of £5,000 to fit a heat pump. They were probably going to put a heat pump in already, but the Government have now given them £5,000 for it.
“If you can afford the other £8,000, you are by definition not short of a buck or two and that is not where the money should go. In these difficult times, a much better use of the money – the £150million a year – be given to 312,000 homes to have their lofts insulated.”
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Some 22 million UK homes — equivalent to 85 percent — are heated using gas boilers, with 1.5 million installed annually. However, their sale will be banned in the UK from 2035.
When the BUS was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October last year some experts were concerned about the number of households eligible for support.
Speaking at the time, Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said: “£450million pounds delivered via individual £5,000 grants means 90,000 heat pump installations over three years. That just isn’t very much, and won’t meet the Prime Minister’s ambition of 600,000 a year by 2028.”
So what do YOU think? Should Mr Sunak scrap ‘immoral’ heat pump scheme? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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