Give heat pump users a tax break on bills to encourage uptake, Treasury told
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
Trust Emma Gatten to be writing this nonsense!
Up to 20 per cent of running costs are green and social taxes
Heat pump users should be given tax breaks on their energy bill to encourage take up, the Treasury has been urged by lenders and energy companies.
Higher running costs have been identified as one of the reasons for low take up of heat pumps, which the Government is favouring to replace gas boilers to help meet net zero goals.
Up to 20 per cent of the running costs are green and social taxes, including payments for wind farms and subsidies for fuel for poor homes.
Sixteen organisations, including Nationwide and energy giant EDF, have written to the Treasury calling on them to remove these levies from a proportion of the energy bill for electrically heated homes.
This would include around 250,000 homes using heat pumps and another 2.3 million that use direct electric heating such as radiators.
The UK has one of the lowest heat pump installation rates in Europe, with just 69,000 installed in 2021, well below the Government target for 600,000 by 2028
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/18/give-heat-pump-users-tax-break-bills-encourage-uptake/
For a start, silly little Emma, these are neither green nor social taxes. Get a grip and call them what they really are – subsidies for renewables. As these form part of the cost of electricity, they belong in the price of electricity, not gas, or for that matter anything else.
The idea that people are suddenly going to go out and spend fifteen grand on a heat pump, just to save £130 is absurd.
Still it is good to see that they are now admitting that heat pumps are dearer to run than a gas boiler, something I have been pointing out for ages.
If a subsidy of £7500 is not enough to persuade people to buy, maybe it is time to drop the whole absurd agenda.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
As I keep on pointing out, if people are stupid enough to think these things will effectively heat their homes, they deserve the outcome. The one thing they shouldn’t have the right to do is to make their neighbours lives a misery with the noise.
This is getting to be no joke.
I get the notion of subsidy to kickstart beneficial tech into a sustainable market position, but this is yet another rich person subsidy on the back of the poor to prop up bad enviROI green dreams and ambitions of those utterly isolated from the consequences.
We could have had solar on our roof, but I looked at the deal and realised that the only way it could pay was us benefitting from the subsidy borne by the pensioners next door.
An EV made zero sense unless it had the subsidy, and even then took from the poor to prop up the rich… and then all lose.
Beyond farce.
Not farce in my view, criminal.
All start-ups run at a loss to begin with, moving into break-even then profit in a reasonable forecastable timeframe, which is why they need cash to get going, usually from investors or banks.
If a business cannot get money from investors or banks, it is because it cannot produce a convincing business plan and forecast which means it is so risky, so unlikely to succeed, nobody sane would invest or loan the money to capitalise it. If a venture is not viable without a subsidy, it is not viable at all.
If banks and investors are not willing to take the risk, why should taxpayers be forced to take the risk? Subsidised ventures do make profits for their shareholders, before their inevitable bankruptcy. This is socialising losses, whilst privatising profit.
As I keep on pointing out, if people are stupid enough to think these ‘buckets of bolts’ will heat their homes properly they deserve the outcome. They do not however have the right to drive their neighbours insane with the noise.
If heat pumps were an improvement on existing gas and oil boilers, people would be snapping them up without needing a subsidy. Only stupid politicians could try to make us accept an inferior method of heating our homes.
As usual, Phillip, you hit the nail squarely on the head. There is no fundamental justification for subsidising any one form of domestic fuelling against any other, except in the “social” situation where the elderly or the long-term sick or those in extreme poverty have the right to expect support in any caring civilised society.
Chasing the chimera of net zero or climate “management” or any other artificial justification for interfering in the workings of the market is no business of government. Though I do expect government to have some say in regulating the cost to the consumer of essential services.
I have considered solar panels because (a) I have a largish roof, and (b) I live in the middle of France where the output in terms of electricity might well exceed the financial input. Anywhere north of the M25 is likely to be a non-starter for both solar and heat pumps. And don’t get me started on EVs!
The current UK government must be by a margin the most obtuse in living memory.
Wait till Starmer and Miliband get their hand on the levers of power. God help us all then.
Unfortunately the likely incoming Labour Govt will be even more “obtuse” than the current lot – heaven help us when Energy Secretary Milliband applies his idiocy to what is left of our energy policy.
I used to have , [lost it somehow ,] the Final Report in 2016 from a Government Climate Committee , [ not CCC ,] headed by Lord Oxborough , which stated , [ on page 62to 64 ,] that electric home heating would never work as it would require a 400% increase in electric generation .
But actual facts like that have been hidden away in the push for net zero insanity .
Perhaps it has been deliberately removed to try to hide up the ongoing madness .
And concomitant increase in grid load carrying capacity and distribution to deliver the increase.
Neither increase in generation output nor grid infrastructure is being undertaken or planned.
Electricity bills are too high for “green environmentally friendly” heating because of Up to 20 per cent of the running costs are green and social taxes, including payments for wind farms and subsidies for fuel for poor homes.
So we’ll give people a subsidy to help pay for their heating.
TWouldn’t the solution be to remove the green and social taxes and make electricity cheaper for everybody.
Only socialist politicians of all colours can think this is a sensible policy
And by moving these subsidies from the electricity bill to general taxation will just keep the tax burden high and stifle the economy as we have seen over the last two quarters.
The subsidies for “renewables” either come from the energy bills directly or from taxation.
How will removing them increase taxation? Energy bills will fall and taxation will fall or more likely be used for something else like buying votes.
The recession is a consequence of high interest rates. That is how the BoE fights inflation, by reducing demand.
Glen, the subsidies for renewables are necessary to make them profitable. Thus they cannot be “removed” only the burden switched from one payer to another.
Phoenix44,
I’ve no desire to make them profitable, it would be sink or swim. These are private or foreign state owned businesses and I don’t want to fill their pockets.
No government should subsidise an energy producer via a consumer levy then give some consumers a subsidy to pay the levy to the supplier it’s completely insane. It only makes sense to civil servants and socialist politicians.
If a technology is efficient, it should need no subsidies to encourage implementation.
Story tip, Paul. DT today:
Lithium battery warehouse goes up in flames
Blaze raises concerns about storage of components known to spontaneously combust.
A warehouse in France storing lithium batteries caught fire on Saturday, amid growing fears over their safety.
The fire on Saturday afternoon occurred at a storehouse in the southern town of Viviez, in Aveyron, where 900 tons of lithium batteries were waiting to be recycled.
Authorities ordered residents to stay indoors and keep their windows closed as thick smoke billowed over the town. No injuries or deaths were reported and the cause of the fire has yet to be established.
Just like the Covid vaccines…….
If they (& the heat pumps) were fit for purpose, we wouldn’t need government propaganda/nudging/influencers/columnists to persuade us to buy…..
When all MP’s and the CCC and the Infrastructure Commisison have installed heat pumps at their own expense in all their properties then, and only then, will I listen to politicians or civil servants telling me how to heat my house.
I agree wholeheartedly, and have long wondered a petition to parliament would work.
As well as the people mentioned in your comment having heat pumps, they should have to insulate. their homes to C rating and buy and run EVs at their own expense.
Alongside that, Whitehall and Parliament heating should be changed from gas to heat pumps, and the car parks under Parliament should have all the parking spaces fitted with car chargers as all the MPs will be driving electric cars.
I live in a house with an ASHP – the previous owner installed it.
It does work when the outside temperature is above 10 degrees C.
Below 0 deg the only warmth you get is from huddling round the smart meter which is glowing red from the huge electricity consumption of the useless ‘heater’.
is this to reduce UK’ carbon dioxide emissions? Trivially insignificant. How much will UK affect global temperature in 2100? Trivially insignificant. No, sorry, not at all
is this to reduce UK’ carbon dioxide emissions? Trivially insignificant. How much will UK affect global temperature in 2100? Trivially insignificant. No, sorry, not at all
The only way of effecting a change to the simply wrong policies of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal democrate parties if to find some way of changing them starting with a minimum of suspension of the Climate Change Act and its provisions including of course the flagship NetZero nonsense. The vast majority of MPs accept “the”consensus” science which of course is an oxymoran. Some of us have tried for 30 years to change this situation including friends at GWPF. So far my conclusion is that our failure has continued for reasons that many of us understand. Only the Reform Party would currently dump current energy policies and they will not win the next election. So sadly, we will have to wait until we have brownouts, blackouts and very obvious increases in costs of living that cannot be explained away as at present as having nothing to do with our policies but just the accident of international energy costs and the actions of Mr Putin. If only children in British schools were to be educated (led out in Latin) rather than subjected to propaganda (ie the reverse of education).
pfg: I don’t think that is how its going to play out. My vision is Tories losing next election, within one to two years labour recognised as having absolutely nothing to offer, anarchy expanding exponentially. Did you read today’s news of police in Holland being injured trying to intervene in an inter-Eritraean street war? That’s the future. Sorry.
We all have ideas about the future. I have a track record which suggests that I am usually wrong. However, there are certain inevitabilities if current policies are continued.
I live in New Zealand. My family have never used gas or oil heating. I’m sure gas heating is very cheap (or at least it was before 2022 in Europe). However it isn’t so cheap in NZ. I’m not sure of the price. Because gas heating has not been available or common until recently electric or fireplace heating has been most widely used. Fireplace heating has drawbacks eg, ducting heat effectively, acquiring wood and then getting rid of ash.
So since most did use at least some electric heating and homes were often on different sections heat pumps are very popular. They produce about 2.5 x the amount of heat of electric heaters for the same electricity and can be ducted efficiently.
Underfloor gas/water heating is probably even more comfortable but likely costs more in NZ.
I think heat pumps are a good option in many places, although I understand that noise can be an issue for close housing.
I should point out that ASHPs do work, if the house is designed and built from the ground up to accommodate one. Retro fitting is another matter.
This doesn’t alter the fact that we are being penalised with SUBSIDIES in a brazen attempt to buck the market. It never works.
Perhaps but they are still inferior to other ways of heating your home even then, not least noise, but also when it is cold, the time they take to heat a house and their lacklustre hot water provision.
Alas, no mains gas in my rural location. I have to set the fall back temperature permanently on, except for nights, otherwise it takes ages to recover warmth in the house. A well designed and insulated house is crucial, which costs thousands if a retrofit is required. My advice to anyone with gas CH is KEEP IT!
What will the Government do when people who are bribed to get a air heat-pump find it is inadequate ?
Can we get a couple of adult scientists to show the kids in Government that heatpumps do not work as intended
Here is the current Tory plan for bringing us blackouts and brownouts.
And here is Labour’s version when use of fossil fuels is ended from 2030. Data is from the government’s DUKES: Chapter 5 Electricity.
Adding more demand to the grid is like shooting yourself in both feet, followed by both hands.
Heat pumps normally require backup with log burners and fires. Half Norway’s homes have them. Log burners typically emit twice the CO2 of gas boilers.
I have an air-source heat pump with air conditioning and supplemental electric resistance heaters. None of this works without electricity. Thus, I have a modern wood stove with a catalytic burner. I suspect only a small percentage of UK homes can be lived in with only a heat pump.
Subsidies and tax breaks for log burners could help increase CO2 and so help lower food prices as crop efficiencies improve
The net zero scam is purely the politics of gesture, in the international forum of elitist belief and goals set by unelected officials and pressured by howling mobs of the relatively uneducated.
The adults are those who exploit the explosion of wealth that the scam generates; the children are those that have no understanding of the implications of pursuing the scam yet believe in its necessity as a religion.
It is amazing that there are so many children in the world, even wearing adult clothes.
Lots of people in my area having them installed for “free”, along with wall insulation and solar panels. Below a certain joint net income, (I think “£31,000) you qualify.
One person we know said it was fine until the cold snap and then they had a problem, but now it’s OK again, (mild weather).
I am happy with my oil boiler and log burner.
could the rather large number of economically inactive people be in the queue for insulation, solar panels and heat pumps? Just a thought…
These folk live in another World. The money to fund the ‘green’ boondoggle has to come from somewhere.
End user subsidy simply transfers the tax incidence from the energy consumed, to taxes paid elsewhere. This does not leave heat pump users better off, they just don’t notice they have been made poorer.
It is of course socialising the cost by spreading it over the entire tax paying population, so instead of just heat pump users being made poorer, everyone is being rogered.
The great con-trick of welfare statism and the redistribution of wealth… or redistribution of immiseration… the Magic Money Tree Illusion, a brainwashed society believes they are not paying for the gifts bestowed by the beneficent State and the middle-man commission it takes to pay itself.