Politics · United Kingdom · 1 hr ago
Ministers plan cuts to heat pump grants to help fund defence spending
Ministers are preparing to reduce grants that help households in England and Wales replace gas boilers with heat pumps.
The grants are part of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which offers up to £9,000 for cleaner heating systems.
The scheme has helped tens of thousands of households, but ministers are not planning to end it altogether.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has been asked to find more than £2bn in savings from her department’s budget to help fund defence investment.
Hundreds of millions of pounds could be cut from the scheme’s £2.7bn budget.
Critics say the cuts could hurt the growing heat pump industry and weaken efforts to tackle climate change.
The government says it will explain this autumn how it will fund essential national security investment.
Ministers are preparing to cut funding for heat pump grants to help pay for higher defence spending.
The cuts are expected to take hundreds of millions of pounds from the £2.7bn boiler upgrade scheme for England and Wales.
The scheme provides grants of up to £9,000 to help households replace boilers with cleaner heating systems.
Critics say reducing the grants could harm the heat pump industry and undermine the government’s climate commitments.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says it will explain how it will fund essential national security investment this autumn.
- Who
- Ministers, including Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, are preparing the cuts.
- What
- The government plans to reduce heat pump grant funding to help fund defence spending.
- When
- The cuts are being prepared; ministers are expected to set out the funding plan this autumn.
- Where
- The boiler upgrade scheme covers England and Wales.
- Why
- The energy department is expected to find £2bn in savings to help pay for defence investment.
Ministers
Critics of cutting the grants
Funding priorities
Ministers
Ministers are seeking savings from the energy department budget to help fund defence investment.
Critics of cutting the grants
Critics say cutting heat pump grants makes no sense while high gas prices are driving energy bills.
Impact on the industry
Ministers
Ministers say the department’s savings for the defence investment plan are a small part of its overall budget.
Critics of cutting the grants
Critics warn that cuts could damage the heat pump industry and the businesses and tradespeople that have invested in it.
Bills are soaring again because of high gas prices. Our reliance on gas is the reason we are in an energy crisis, so cutting funding for heat pumps makes no sense.
The boiler upgrade scheme is doing exactly what it was meant to do. It’s kicking off an industry to drive down the costs of heat pumps – they can now cost the same to install as a gas boiler after the grant.
We will set out how we will fund essential investment in our national security this autumn.
John Healey resigned as defence secretary, arguing that the defence uplift was not enough.
Bloomberg reported that ministers were planning cuts to carbon capture and storage and green hydrogen schemes as part of energy department savings.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it would set out how it would fund national security investment.
- Energy department savings
- More than £2bn
- Boiler upgrade scheme budget
- £2.7bn
- Maximum grant
- £9,000
- Scheme coverage
- England and Wales
- Defence spending rise
- £15bn over four years
Sources
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