The UK is lagging far behind France and other EU countries in installing heat pumps, research has shown, with less than a tenth of the number of installations despite having similar markets.
Only 55,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK last year, compared with more than 620,000 in France. Twenty other European countries also had higher installation rates than the UK.
Heat pumps, which are powered by electricity and work rather like fridges in reverse, are considered the most efficient way for the UK to shift to low-carbon heating and away from the gas-fired boilers that heat the majority of homes. With gas prices still at high levels, heat pumps are cheaper to run than gas boilers, though more expensive to install, and could be cheaper still with further changes to the electricity market.
At current rates, the UK has little chance of meeting the government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028. However, according to analysts from the MCS Charitable Foundation, which approves low-carbon certification standards, gearing up to do so could create 50,000 new jobs, up from only about 2,000 jobs in the industry today.
The MCS report, titled Heat Pump Rollout in France and the UK 2023, called on the government to make heat pumps mandatory for all new homes, scale up and extend grants to install heat pumps in existing homes, introduce new loan schemes for homeowners, and embark on a countrywide awareness campaign to explain heat pumps and the incentives on offer.
The existing boiler upgrade scheme must be extended to be effective, the report said, and ministers must bring in the long-awaited future homes standard from 2025, with a clear end-date for the sales of gas boilers.
David Cowdrey, the director of external affairs at MCS, said: “Heat pumps are an extremely efficient technology for cutting carbon and bills, but the UK has so far not capitalised on their potential. With other countries such as France surging ahead, the race is on for the UK to step up. We need a much more comprehensive set of policy measures to meet the government’s targets.”
The UK’s market for heat pumps grew by about 40% in 2022, but from a very low base, with only 1.9 heat pumps installed for every 1,000 households last year, compared with 20 for every 1,000 households in France, and nearly 70 in Finland.
MCS said it was not too late for the government to meet its targets, pointing to an 80% increase in France from 90,000 installations in 2018 to 175,0000 in 2019 after the introduction of a grant scheme available to all households.
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Jan Rosenow, the director of European programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project thinktank, said: “Leading heat pump markets around the world have one thing in common: a stable and clear policy and regulatory landscape. If the policy package is right, consumer demand and industry investment follows, as experience from other countries shows very clearly. The UK can be a global leader on clean heating but this requires long-term policies to drive consumer demand and supply chain expansion.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We’re investing billions to improve energy efficiency across the country, with over £70m in vouchers issued to installers in the first year of our boiler upgrade scheme. We are fully confident of meeting our aim of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028 – and consumers can now install one for an increasingly similar price to a gas boiler.”
