UK Pellet Council Response to the Warm Homes Plan
The UK Pellet Council (UKPC) welcomes the government’s Warm Homes Plan, which promises significant investment in home energy efficiency and low-interest financing to help households decarbonise their heating, though its current design raises important questions about fairness and effectiveness.
Under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), at least 420,000 rural homes unsuitable for heat pumps will receive £2,500 less support than urban households, creating a clear financial disparity for those living in rural communities that has no policy justification. Many of these off-gas-grid properties cannot install heat pumps as they are old, too poorly insulated or have location specific characteristics, leaving homeowners with no viable alternative under current incentives.
Whilst efficient, heat pumps produce a lower temperature heat which is unsuitable for these buildings whereas modern biomass boilers directly replace the existing heat source ‘like for like’ with minimal, if any, changes required to heating or hot water distribution within the property. Not having access to the same level of funding forces rural homeowners to continue burning oil or LPG fuels rather than sustainable biomass such as ENplus® certified wood pellets.
Despite wood pellet systems costing almost half as much per kW installed compared with heat pumps, the very low uptake of biomass under the BUS suggests that only smaller rural homes have benefited from the scheme so far. Additionally, government support for one wood pellet boiler system can achieve greater CO2 reductions than multiple heat pump installations needed for larger properties. The lower BUS grant for biomass ignores this option entirely, penalising rural homeowners and small businesses.
Some installers are even pushing heat pumps purely because of the higher grant, only for customers to later discover that their homes are inadequately heated or their hot water has to be backed up by an immersion heater. The UK Government must stop creating this uneven playing field by picking winners and allow customers to choose the best technology for each property based upon impartial advice from the installer.
Neil Holland, Chair of the UKPC, commented “The Warm Homes Plan is a welcome advance, but it risks stranding hundreds of thousands of rural households with outdated heating systems, unless biomass incentives are equalised. The policy must provide viable alternatives for these properties for genuine net zero progress.“
The Warm Homes Plan is a step in the right direction but addressing these rural gaps while focusing on real carbon savings will make it fairer and more effective at reaching decarbonisation goals.