The new scheme to help homeowners to replace their gas boilers with £7000 will be introduced in April next year, it is part of a new £400 million scrappage scheme. These plans have been pulled together to try to improve the Clean Heat Grants Scheme for the relaunch in April 2022 the scheme will close to new applicants after March 2024 when the funding is no longer committed. The Times also added that Boris Johnson could may quadruple the budget if the scheme is ran across three years, with an increased starting grant of £7000. Boris Johnson hopes to scrap all gas boilers within four years and has also committed to achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050-a target that could cost around £1.4 trillion.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) says that a voucher system for delivering the grant will be issued by a first come, first serve basis. The £7000 flat-rate grant is aimed at helping with the upfront cost of installing heat pumps which deliver space heating and hot water. The scheme will help to pay for around 60,000 heat pumps to be installed and will also see a large-scale advertising to push to replace gas boilers. The UK government has also set a target to install around 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028- which cost around £10,000 compared to £1,000 for a new gas boiler.
Heat pumps transfer a source of heat/warmth such as the heat from the soil in your garden, from one place to another such as a hot-water system in a home. Heat pumps use a smaller amount of electricity compared to gas boilers the heat pumps often achieve a 200%-600% efficiency rate because of the amount of heat produced is higher than the energy consumed.
The new scheme has came to light due to the new UN climate report that painted a bleak picture of the future without immediate action. The major UN climate report put a huge pressure on all governments to take more action to try to cut emissions in the run up to the international Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November. Boris Johnson is reportedly to hoping to announce the scheme ahead of the climate change conference.
