Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee: Decarbonising heat in homes:
The Heat Pump Federation and its members are delighted to see the publication of this select committee report, not least because it very much mirrors our own thinking on what needs to be done to decarbonise home heating, see https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmbeis/1038/report.html.
Bean Beanland, the HPF’s Director of Growth & External Affairs said: “Whether on consumer awareness, skills & training,investment, future funding (affordability), the need for urgency, or the need for massive cooperation between both central and local government and industry,we agree, almost without exception, with the Select Committee’s findings and recommendations.
The report makes clear that rapid development of a Heat Decarbonisation Sector Deal must be a priority. This needs to include policy direction for the thirty years through to Net Zero 2050 and a domestic heat technology roadmap that has been developed in full collaboration with industry and crucially consumer groups. Consumers need to be positively involved in the Net Zero journey.”
Future interventions need to be decades long to deliver the stable policy environment that will allow investment in capacity, training and skills to thrive. The recent Heat Pump Demonstrator programme found that “heat pumps can be successfully installed in homes from every style and era”, but this awareness needs to be coupled with ongoing investment in home energy efficiency to drive down operating costs of all heat technologies.
The call for the Future Homes Standard to be brought forward is very welcome. Avoiding the unnecessary cost of upgrading new build homes will be of massive benefit to consumers. In-home thermal storage and consideration of heat networks are both critical elements in this segment.
Operational costs have to be addressed through the rebalancing of taxation on electricity and fossil fuels that reflects the relative carbon and other emissions, but at every stage, consumer affordability has to be central to policy development so that the transition can be fast, but fair.
Bean Beanland added: “The Government aspirations and the CCC targets for heat pump deployment are challenges that grow day by day, but if this Select Committee report can provide the springboard that launches an immediate redoubling of government effort against all of the recommendations,then the Federation and its members stand ready to share the burden.”
