{"id":122548,"date":"2023-12-18T13:30:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T13:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/?p=122548"},"modified":"2023-12-18T13:30:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T13:30:05","slug":"new-heat-pump-rollout-to-hand-britons-1-5bn-energy-lifeline-and-slash-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/politics\/new-heat-pump-rollout-to-hand-britons-1-5bn-energy-lifeline-and-slash-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"New heat pump rollout to hand Britons \u00a31.5bn energy lifeline and slash bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Families and businesses will benefit from slashed energy bills following a \u00a36 billion funding boost to make homes warmer, ministers have announced.<\/p>\n

A Government grant scheme to support the installation of heat pumps is set to bring a \u00a31.5 billion boost to nearly one million homes.<\/p>\n

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: \u201dCutting energy bills is my top priority. Today\u2019s funding will help those who are most in need and keep around a million more families warm during winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone 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 \u2013 up from just 14 per cent in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis funding will help us go even further and improve 200,000 cold, low income and social homes.”<\/p>\n

Britain will hit the target of installing 600,000 new heat pumps each year, energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan insisted today.<\/p>\n

Lord Callanan said the Government is \u201con target\u201d to meet its 2028 heat pump installation goals, despite official figures showing yearly installations are currently far below this figure.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe have a number of different training schemes, we have spent \u00a315 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grants to help with the cost of installing a heat pump were increased in October from \u00a35,000 to \u00a37,500 for air-source heat pumps and from \u00a36,000 to \u00a37,500 for ground-source heat pumps.<\/p>\n

The Government’s aim is to incentivise people to opt for an energy-efficient heat pump rather than a new gas boiler.<\/p>\n

Adam Scorer, chief executive of National Energy Action, said: \u201c 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the scale of this announcement is small relative to the challenge at hand and will not reach some of those in greatest need.<\/p>\n