Boiler Tax Set To Be Scrapped
By Paul Homewood
h/t Patsy Lacey
The Government is preparing to ditch the so-called boiler tax in an announcement which could come as soon as this week, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
Claire Coutinho, the Energy Secretary, will not be proceeding with the policy, which had been blamed for pushing up gas boiler prices and criticised as a form of “government coercion”.
Under the Clean Heat Market Mechanism, manufacturers would be required to match, or substitute, 4 per cent of their boiler sales with heat pumps or face a fine of £3,000 for every installation they fell short by.
The scheme was due to start in April, with the target rising to 6 per cent from April 2025.
Home heating companies had warned that the plans would force them to increase the price of their boilers by up to £120 – a move criticised by Ms Coutinho.
The Telegraph now understands that the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is preparing to announce that it will not be going ahead with the fines for at least the first year of the scheme.
Ministers needed to lay a Statutory Instrument by April to provide the legal powers to enforce the quotas, but this is no longer expected to happen.
Instead, 2024-25 will be treated as a “monitoring year” in which the Government tracks sales of heat pumps relative to boilers.
The move is likely to be welcomed by Conservative MPs on the Right of the party who had criticised the scheme.
Craig Mackinlay, the chair of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Tory MPs, wrote to Ms Coutinho in February urging her to “trust your instincts and scrap this harmful policy”, branding the scheme “Government coercion”.
“Consumer choice has to be at the heart of a Conservative, free-market approach to Net Zero,” he said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/02/government-scrap-boiler-tax-blamed-pushing-up-prices/
As so often, this Government is fiddling around at the edges, instead of taking the bull by the horns.
This was an ideal opportunity to abandon completely the whole idea of quotas and fines. Moreover they should have declared that heat pumps would not be forced on homeowners or gas boilers banned until the former were financially competitive.
If Labour want to reverse such a policy when elected, let them face the backlash.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Customer is king?
Meaningless electioneering that we all know will be reversed if by some miracle the Tories won the election. If the Tories are unwilling to fight for the principles that make them Tories why would any voter with Tory principles vote for them?
My personal hope is that the election is a close run one with Reform securing enough seats to hold the balance of power in a hung Parliament with the Conservatives. A bit like during the Con-LibDem coalition did the Tories will give the Energy remit to the junior party, in this case Reform, for them to take any flak. Well I live in hope!
“Well I live in hope.”
Like the thief in Baghdad condemned to death by the Caliph?
Who said, “Wait a moment O Great One! With me would die a wonderful secret. I can teach animals to speak!” The Caliph replies,
“Very well! You have one year to live in my palace and teach my stallion to converse with me. If you fail….”
The Vizier says with a sneer to the thief as he departs for the stables, “Your fate is still sealed!” And the thief says to him:
“Much may happen in a year. I may die of natural causes. The Caliph may die of natural causes, and my fault be forgotten. And…the horse may learn to talk!”
As it happen dave I’ve had a word with Mr Ed (no not Davey) and he says…….
In the polls, which I would take with a bag of salt, Reform has closed to 6 points from the Tories which may have the effect of drawing even more voters away from the Tories. But while a week is a long time in politics, we have many weeks until the Autumn election and things will no doubt change. The useless OBR – which a Labour government would put in charge of future budgets despite being as wrong as often as the Bank of England and the IMF – seems to have holed kHunt’s tax cutting budget which was probably the Tories last hope of propping up support.
I share your hope Ray but it is unlikely. What might happen though is George Galloway’s party might get a few seats in Labour constituencies, due to Muslim vote, which would reduce Labour’s majority. Reform might also grab a few seats, such is the disillusionment with a big portion of the electorate, giving Starmer a big problem. I think there is a good chance that the Lib-Dems will get wiped out as being irrelevant.
Talking to people, I’ve never felt so much anger with politicians in general and the 2 main parties in particular. The more people see Net Zero for what it is and it’s cost, the more I think major change is possible. Interesting times indeed.
If the Tories are unwilling to fight for the principles that make them Tories why would any voter with Tory principles vote for them?
Here absolutely b….. here.
What about the severe penalties on car makers for not selling ‘enough’ EVs?
The car manufacturers – and the stupid SMMT – have been far too supine over this whereas the boiler makers have been quick to act and blame the government. The funniest – or saddest? – thing is the Morons of Parliament who say that the companies don’t have to add the cost of the fine to the price much the same as I think the idiot Osborne said when increases taxes on insurance policies. In days gone by Tories used to have business experience but they seem to be devoid of that these days.
Are not the tax penalties for running most ICE vehicles also “government coercion” ?
another Tory bribe before the GE. It will be reinstated afterwards.
I don’t think so. Enthusiasm for Net Zero is waning, even amongst MPs, but they couldn’t be seen to cancel the boiler tax as that would be showing them as having wrong policies. In deferring the implementation and bringing in a “monitoring” of the situation, they have given themselves a breathing space before the election and appear reasonable but fair. The situation about selling heat pumps will be no different to now in a year and I expect the whole concept of taxing manufacturers will be quietly abandoned. I can see Humphrey written all over this decision.
I don’t see any evidence that enthusiasm for Net Zero is waning. The boiler tax suspension is just a temporary pause whilst they try and find a way to stop manufacturers passing the cost on to consumers, not some change of heart. They continue with all the rest of the vast destruction of the economy.
“It will be reinstated afterwards.”
By Labour probably, but not by the ConSocialists who will be out of office.
if Reform have anything to do with it the whole Nut Zero will be scrapped.
We live in hope, I’ve got a Reform membership certificate!
I have one too🙂
They’re testing the water with a ‘pre-announcement’. They already know the policy is a disaster so this gives the air of ‘listening to customers’ before they capitulate. It’s reputational and damage and limitation.
Yep exactly right. Good old fashioned “expectation management”
“…expectation management…”
And all rather pointless, in view of the probable outcome of the election in a few months’ time? Labour predicted to have a majority of 260 seats:
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html
The (possible) good news, in this, is that such a majority* will immediately cause the Labour Party to fall into endless infighting (concerning whatever fine points of Marxism and Wokery it is that they like to quarrel about**) and they will forget to actually do anything about savaging the country, while having such fun.
*The Johnson majority of 80 seats was the trigger for instant plotting against him.
**All rather reminiscent of “The Life of Brian” and the innumerable, differently named, anti-Roman groups.
dave:
Not sure that The Life of Sunak would be a crowd pleasers, evn though there are innumerable anti-groups against.
Yet they continue to impose far more damaging and far more costly Net Zero policies. Yhe boiler tax only affects those replacing boilers whereas the large subsidies handed out to new wind farms affect us all and continue.
I doubt it. They will have Net Zero in their manifesto and then reinstate the boiler tax claiming we voted for it – as will Labour.
Not scrapped just pushed back a year. What do they take us for ?
Waiting for Milliband to condemn it then Labour should or is it when they win will quietly keep the policy.