From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Ed Miliband has admitted that heat pumps may always be more expensive than gas boilers.

Sales of heat pumps remain pitifully low, despite £7500 subsidies on offer. Government targets of 600,000 sales a year are pie in the sky, with the public at large unconvinced of the benefits.

The Daily Mail reports:

Heat pumps may never be cheaper than gas boilers, Ed Miliband has said, despite Labour sneaking a ‘boiler tax’ through Parliament.

The Energy Secretary confirmed that the government is not planning to introduce a future ban on gas boilers, citing concern around the potential cost to consumers.

The scheme, which will come into force in April, means boiler manufacturers will be fined if they fail to sell enough heat pumps.

Companies in the sector have previously warned it would add £120 to the cost of a new boiler – leading it to be dubbed the ‘boiler tax’.

Speaking at the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee on Wednesday, Mr Miliband said he was ‘wary’ of stopping people from having gas boilers by a specific date if the government cannot guarantee greener alternatives will be cheaper.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/ed-miliband-admits-heat-pumps-may-never-be-cheaper-than-gas-boilers/ar-AA1xidIK

If he is ruling out a ban on gas boilers, it raises the question of how they can be phased out by 2035, which still remains the plan.

The boiler tax of £120 is far too tiny to make the slightest difference, and is simply spite. Even if it was raised to punitive levels, it still would not alter the fundamental fact that most people simply cannot afford to spend £10k on a heat pump, never mind the thousands more needed in most homes for upgrading radiators, insulation, hot water tanks and water heaters.

If gas boilers are unavailable or unaffordable, people will just buy conventional electric heaters instead. And that would quickly cripple the electricity grid, as it would not have the capacity to cope.

It is likely that gas will be taxed, in order to close the price gap with electricity. But to push gas prices up enough to make a difference would be political suicide, even if electricity prices were simultaneously reduced, as it would disproportionately hit the poor. Putting up pensioners’ heating costs would probably sound the death knell for the Labour Government!

Moreover the current heat pump subsidy of £7500 is unsustainable in the long run. If every home was paid it, the bill would be £150 billion. All we would be doing was subsidising our own heat pumps.

The likely outcome is that Miliband will simply kick the can down the road and leave it to the next government to bite the bullet.