Budget Takes £741m From Heat Pump Scheme to Help Fund Defence
John Healey’s Budget cut more than £3bn from the energy department, much of it to pay for defence. This includes £741m from the boiler upgrade scheme, which subsidises heat pumps. The scheme’s funding will now rise only with inflation, instead of increasing to just over £700m by 2029–30. Experts warn that the target of 250,000 installations a year by 2030 is slipping out of reach.
“After the cuts announced on Wednesday, it is very difficult to see how we can hit our clean heating targets,” said Andrew Sissons of Nesta. About 60,000 heat pumps a year are now fitted in existing homes. Hydrogen schemes lose about £500m and carbon capture £200m. A government source called it “probably the most significant shift we have seen in energy policy” since Labour took office, with the emphasis now on cost. Paul Ovenden, a former adviser to Keir Starmer, said the cuts were “the bones of Ed Miliband’s project being picked clean”.