Targets
First the government needs to set a clear course. The language of its current targets is vague and hemmed around with caveats meaning much of the supply chain – scalded by previous policy reversals - is reluctant to invest.
The government must therefore set targets for clean heat as strong and clear as those it has set for EVs. We suggest: n ‘The sale of natural gas boilers will be banned in the UK by 2035’ This simple change in language would tell the industry that a market of 28 million homes is coming. It would give it the confidence to invest in production capacity and to hire and train staff. It would signal that the government means it and there is no going back.
The targets should be buttressed with a series of interim targets — as with the UK’s carbon budgets — to keep us on track. ‘Clean heat ready’ would be defined by a thermal efficiency standard — such as Watts per Kelvin (W/K) or annual kWh/ m2 — that is measured not estimated (see ‘Technical’ below). The standard should be set at level that means each home is well-enough insulated to be affordably heated with a heat pump — whether or not that technology is eventually installed.
The government already has statutory target ensure all fuel-poor homes should have a minimum energy efficiency rating of EPC band C by 2030 where ‘reasonably practicable’ — but is badly off-course.194 Independent analysis suggests that under current policies 80% of the 3.2 million households that were fuel poor in 2019 will still be fuel poor in 2030. And now the gas crisis has plunged millions more households into fuel poverty. The government must therefore: Reaffirm its fuel poverty target and explain how it will achieve it. Doing so will probably cost tens of billions of pounds rather than the low-single digit billions currently being spent – but this would be a major down-payment on heat decarbonisation
Reduce the taxpayer burden by legislating its proposed minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) on private landlords (see Table 5) and fund councils to enforce them n Honour the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto pledge to spend £2.5 billion on HUG; the Heat and Building Strategy commits only £950 million
