The Rural Heat Gap Challenge
The 2025 Climate Change Committee (CCC) report to Parliament highlights the UK’s progress on emissions reduction, while also drawing attention to an important challenge: the rural heat gap. This gap reflects the large number of rural and off-grid homes that current government policies fail to adequately support, risking climate targets and rural fairness.
The CCC rightly calls for faster building decarbonisation, but current policies systematically disadvantage rural homes in practice. For example, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grants £7,500 for heat pump installations but only £5,000 for biomass boilers, despite evidence that for close to 500,000 rural homes biomass heating may be their only zero carbon option when moving from oil, LPG and even coal. This funding disparity undermines claims of “technology neutrality” in favouring heat pumps when they may not even be suitable.
While the CCC report focuses predominantly on the electrification of heat, it pays limited attention to the carbon-saving potential of biomass heat for rural communities. Replacing an oil boiler with a modern ENplus® wood pellet fuelled boiler saves around 9 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent annually, compared to only about 1½ tonnes for a typical air source heat pump replacing natural gas This means that installing just 30,000 wood pellet boilers could deliver 30% of the UK’s annual heat decarbonisation target, representing the fastest large-scale route to meeting CCC 2030 goals.
The UK has ample sustainable wood residues to heat an additional 500,000 rural homes, reducing dependence on volatile international fossil fuel markets, as well as a number of professional, experienced ENplus® certified wood pellet producers who would be prepared to invest in increasing manufacturing capacity given the right signals from government. ENplus® wood pellets provide rural households with stable, affordable energy prices which is crucial for those facing fuel poverty. This price stability is a critical but understated opportunity in the CCC’s analysis.
Heating with biomass such as wood pellets can also deliver up to seven times more jobs than other renewable technologies, particularly in rural areas where economic opportunities are often limited. This job creation could support the Government’s broader growth agenda and align with the priorities of rural constituencies.
The CCC’s 2025 report signals progress but stops short of embracing the full potential of biomass heat to solve the rural heat challenge. To build a fair, affordable, and effective transition, policymakers must urgently close this rural heat gap and unlock the power of biomass for Britain’s off-grid homes and communities.
A real net zero future depends on it.