Lord Callanan, The UK Business And Energy Minister, Committed To ‘Gradual’ Heat Pump Transition In The United Kingdom

The HVAC industry will have to wait on the upcoming Energy Bill for details of any additional financial or regulatory incentives that may be introduced to shift the United Kingdom (UK) to low carbon heat.

Lord Callanan, the UK Business and Energy Minister, says the country’s planned transition to low carbon heat systems will be a ‘gradual transformation’, rather than a more drastic industry revolution.

The UK Business and Energy Minister said that important systems, such as heat pumps were a nascent industry at present, in terms of both commercial demand and installer capacity to deliver them. 

Heat pumps – key to decarbonize buildings

Heat pumps have nonetheless been identified in the UK Government's Heat and Buildings Strategy

Heat pumps have nonetheless been identified in the UK Government's Heat and Buildings Strategy, as a vital solution for ending the UK’s reliance on natural gas boilers, in the push to decarbonize buildings.

The UK Minister said that he did expect to start to see a clear shift in UK heat pump use, driven by range of measures that the UK Government is introducing, along with some legislative reforms.

Gradual transition to low carbon heat systems

Lord Callanan said, “It will change gradually over time and there’s no question that costs need to come down before there will be mass market penetration. We hope that by our incentive schemes, by a little bit of regulatory input, we will push people in that direction.”

The comments were made during the Sustainable Energy Association’s (SEA) annual reception that was held at the UK House of Commons, on 23 May, 2022.

Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS)

In between jokes about the difference between ‘gatherings’ and ‘parties’, a range of speakers addressed the challenges posed by decarbonizing buildings and how they are heated. 

The event was also held the same day that grant applications opened for the £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) that will provide grants of up to £6,000, in order to support the installation of heat pumps in the existing housing stock in England and Wales, in the United Kingdom (UK).

Energy efficiency incentive calls

The launch of the application process was met with calls from some campaigners for the UK Government to introduce a widespread program of insulation improvements in homes, in order to reduce heating demand across the country.

These pledges have been backed by the SEA, among organizations that continue to call for a national retrofit strategy.

More funds for insulation and energy efficiency schemes

Lord Callanan stated that he would continue to make the case for more money to be provided towards insulation and energy efficiency schemes, but the final decision would be down to the UK Treasury, on what financing would be set aside, with regards to tackling fuel poverty.

Lord Callanan said, “Are you asking me if I’d like to spend more? Of course. But the difficult task the Chancellor has is that he has lots of ministers, such as myself, across Government with lots of great ideas about how to spend more money.”

He adds, “The difficult job in politics is how to raise it in the first place.”

New Energy Bill

The UK Minister argued that the Government would like to balance any new incentives with some legislative reforms

The upcoming publication of the UK Government’s new Energy Bill is now expected to set out what new provisions there will be to support more efficient heat, if at all. The UK Minister argued that the Government would like to balance any new incentives with some legislative reforms, so as to encourage a shift to lower carbon systems.

From a regulatory perspective, he said there had been a recent consultation on proposals for placing an obligation on boiler manufacturers to produce a set amount of low carbon systems for the UK market that he noted had been controversial among certain manufacturers.

Planned changes to Building Regulations

Lord Callanan also cited planned changes to Building Regulations, such as the introduction of the Future Homes Standard in 2025 that he said was expected to drive heat pump adoption.

He said, “That will be a big fill up to the market. Of course, there is a lot of low carbon heating systems being installed in existing homes that included the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonization Fund (SHDF) for example.”

Lord Callanan concludes, “All of this will change the climate in the market. So I’m not sure there will be regulations to force anybody, I’m not a great supporter of the heavy handed role of the state.”