By Britain goes green
Gas boilers will be banned in all new-build homes within just three years, it emerged yesterday (Thursday), as experts said a target to install 600,000 heat pumps every year under Boris Johnson’s ten-point green plan is unlikely to be met.
Johnson’s ‘ambitious’ plans to ban gas boilers in all new-build homes by 2023, after the target was brought forward by two years.
The plan is part of the ‘future homes standard’ which will mean all new homes must have low-carbon alternatives, such as electric heat pumps.
On a day of confusion yesterday, the 2023 deadline was removed from an official document within an hour of the Government being contacted about it by the Times, with officials blaming its inclusion on a ‘technical error’.
But a government source then confirmed the ban was still being brought forward from 2025, saying:
“It wasn’t supposed to be in there”.
“There hasn’t been any stakeholder engagement on it yet but it’s definitely the plan”.
Last year the Government proposed banning the sale of gas boilers from 2025, but admitted fears over supply issues with 30,000 heat pumps currently installed each year – but an annual target of 300,000 new homes.
The proposal was branded ‘impossible’ because just two hydrogen boiler prototypes exist, a fifth of the pipe network still needs to be relaid and every engineer will be retrained.
One homebuilding source said the 2023 target “might look good in a headline but it’s practically impossible to deliver”.
This ambitious new deadline comes after recent announcements revealing further plans to make the UK more sustainable.
Some of the new plans would mean the UK would see:
- A ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 (some hybrids will still be allowed)
- A £1.3bn investment in electric vehicle charging points
- Investment in the offshore wind industry
- Clean public transport options include hydrogen buses
- Jet zero and greener maritime with plans to develop the first zero-emission long-haul passenger flights.
