The "boiler tax" has been given the green light to go ahead despite manufacturers warning the costs would pass on to consumers.
Speaking in the House of Lords, energy efficiency minister Martin Callanan announced that the Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM), known as the "boiler tax", will go ahead next year in a bid to ramp up heat pump installation targets.
The Clean Heat Market Mechanism aims to roll out 600,000 ground and air source heat pumps a year by 2028.
Government denies scheme is a 'boiler tax'
Lord Callanan confirmed the Clean Heat Market Mechanism would be going ahead and denied it was a "boiler tax".
Lord Callanan in the House of Lords responded to a question regarding the ‘boiler tax’ stating: “There is no such thing as a boiler tax, and therefore it is impossible to scrap it.
“We will be implementing the Clean Heat Market Mechanism because it is an essential part of meeting the 600,000 heat pumps installed per year by 2028 target and our carbon budget.”
Lord Callanan has previously slammed companies with “vested interests” and accused them of launching “campaigns of misinformation against heat pumps”.
'Boiler tax' sparked anti-heat pump campaign
A DeSmog investigation revealed the UK’s largest gas boiler trade association, the Energy and Utilities Association (EUA), had paid a Birmingham-based PR company, WPR, to spread stories critical of heat pumps.
Articles and media appearances were alleged to have criticising the government's Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM), which will fine boiler companies who fail to meet heat pump quotas.
The scheme is another government measure aimed at increasing heat pump adoption such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).
However, Juliet Phillips, the UK energy lead for think tank E3G, stated: “The so-called ‘boiler tax’ is a scam created by the manufacturers. The clean heat market mechanism does not require them to raise the price of boilers.”
CHMM delayed until April 2025
Despite the CHMM being confirmed, the scheme, which was set to be introduced in April this year, was pushed back April 2025.
There were media reports that the government was in talks to scrap boiler tax due to price hikes from boiler companies, but it will now only be delayed.
David Cowdrey, director of external affairs at the MCS Foundation, a charity who fund renewable energy projects in homes, criticised the delay stating: “It is extremely disappointing to see that the government has postponed one of the most important policies for getting the UK off fossil fuel heating.
"The clean heat market mechanism is crucial to the rollout of heat pumps, which are the only viable option to decarbonising at scale the 17% of UK emissions that are created by heating our homes.”
“The government needs to immediately set out plans for how it intends to fill the huge gap in heat pump plans that they have just created. We need clear and consistent policy more than anything, and without that the UK’s target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 is in serious jeopardy.”
Lord Callanan also used his speech to hit back at the apparent anti-heat pump campaign, saying: “My Lords, I’m supportive of a sensible debate on competing technologies, but planting misleading and false stories about heat pumps to negatively affect public support for the technologies is frankly a disgrace. And the big boiler manufacturers who fund the EUA should be ashamed of themselves.”
He said: “There are a number of people taken in by the misinformation being spread, primarily with people with vested interests. I'm not going to mention names but people have a vested interest in maintaining our current supply of gas boilers and the like."
Responding to the comments, Mike Foster, the chief executive of the EUA, said: “Last year we categorically denied we had instructed a PR agency to run an anti-heat pump campaign. There was no such campaign and there was never any payment made by EUA or its members to finance something that frankly did not exist.
“As an organisation, we believe all technologies are needed to decarbonise heat and have said so repeatedly, in the written press, TV, radio and online.”
