Boiler grants to reach 10,000 fewer homeowners and landlords

Grants for heat pumps to replace gas boiler units will be available to fewer homeowners, it has emerged.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (main picture) increased the amount available to each household in his net zero speech last week, but did not announce any more cash for the overall boiler replacement scheme.

Sunak said grants to help homeowners switching from boilers to heat pumps would be raised from £5,000 to £7,500.

Fewer can claim grant

However, the total budget for the offer has remained £150 million, as the Daily Telegraph highlighted.

It means 10,000 fewer people will be able to apply for the grant, down from 30,000 to 20,000.

The PM watered down the requirement on gas boilers so that households will only have to make the switch when they’re changing their boiler anyway, and not until 2035.

Never force

The target had been for no gas boilers to be installed in new homes by 2025, and for the phasing out of boilers altogether to begin in 2033.

He said the government would never force anyone to replace a gas boiler with a heat pump. Instead, householders will only be required to switch when they are due to change their boiler anyway.

Heat pumps, he said, needed to be made cheaper without imposing high costs on families at a time while technology is still expensive.

C rating deadline scrapped

Sunak also scrapped proposed deadlines for a minimum C rating for new tenancies by 2025 and all rentals by 2028.

A Government spokesperson told the Telegraph funding for the boiler replacement scheme may be reviewed.

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