Families and businesses will benefit from slashed energy bills following a £6 billion funding boost to make homes warmer, ministers have announced.
A Government grant scheme to support the installation of heat pumps is set to bring a £1.5 billion boost to nearly one million homes.
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: ”Cutting energy bills is my top priority. Today’s funding will help those who are most in need and keep around a million more families warm during winter.
“Everyone deserves to live in a warm, energy efficient home. We have already made excellent progress with nearly 50 per cent of properties in England now having an Energy Performance Certificate of C – up from just 14 per cent in 2010.
“This funding will help us go even further and improve 200,000 cold, low income and social homes.”
Britain will hit the target of installing 600,000 new heat pumps each year, energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan insisted today.
Lord Callanan said the Government is “on target” to meet its 2028 heat pump installation goals, despite official figures showing yearly installations are currently far below this figure.
He added: “We have a number of different training schemes, we have spent £15 million on a new heat training grant recently which has trained thousands of new installers and more and more existing boiler engineers are transferring onto installing heat pumps.”
Grants to help with the cost of installing a heat pump were increased in October from £5,000 to £7,500 for air-source heat pumps and from £6,000 to £7,500 for ground-source heat pumps.
The Government’s aim is to incentivise people to opt for an energy-efficient heat pump rather than a new gas boiler.
Adam Scorer, chief executive of National Energy Action, said: “ Any improvements in energy efficiency for low-income households is a move in the right direction. Some continuity for local authority projects is especially important.
“But the scale of this announcement is small relative to the challenge at hand and will not reach some of those in greatest need.
“While hundreds of thousands will receive support, millions will remain in fuel poverty. And the announcement does nothing to help those private renters living in cold and damp homes that are impossible to heat affordably.
For all that we welcome the future investment, those struggling to keep warm and to cope with record levels of debt this winter need something to make their plight easier, and they need it now.
“For now, the lack of support means National Energy Action will continue to see low-income households take severe measures to reduce their energy use and avoid impossible debt.”
A new local authority retrofit scheme for low-income homes will also open in 2025, backed by £500 million.
A fresh £400 million energy efficiency grant will also go to households from 2025, to fund bigger radiators and better insulation.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said: “Investing in energy efficiency combined with energy security, is the only way to stop ourselves being at the mercy of international gas prices, one of the main drivers of inflation.
“This investment will support households and businesses across the country to make greener choices in a way that doesn’t add a burden to working people.”
