Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is planning to take to decarbonise domestic heating supply.

The Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out how the Government is taking ‘no-regrets’ action now for decarbonising domestic heating supply, particularly on heat pumps, whilst supporting ongoing trials and other research and innovation on our future heating systems, including on hydrogen. The Government will make a decision on the potential role for hydrogen in heating buildings by 2026, learning from the Hydrogen Village pilot. Heat pump technology will play a key role in all scenarios, so for those who want to install them now, the government is supporting them to do so.

The Government want, to ensure that, in future, heat pumps are no more expensive to buy and run for consumers, the fossil fuel boilers. Households will benefit from £5,000 government grants through the £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. With this transition taking place over the next 14 years, no-one will be forced to remove their existing fossil fuel boilers. This will enable homeowners to easily make green choices gradually and in an affordable, practical and fair way,

A £60m innovation fund has been launched to make clean heat systems smaller and easier to install and cheaper to run. This will support the Government’s new target for all new heating systems installed in UK homes by 2035 to be either using low-carbon technologies, such as electric heat pumps, or supporting new technologies like hydrogen-ready boilers, where the government is confident it can supply clean, green fuel.