Warm Homes Plan cuts heat pump target by 25%

The government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations by 2028 has been watered down, the £15bn Warm Homes Plan (WHP) reveals.

The document, published on 21 January by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, says the government’s aim is for the heat pump market to expand to more than 450,000 annual installations by 2030.

This is fewer installations over a longer timespan than the previous target of 600,000 heat pumps in UK homes by 2028, which was set out in the Heat and Buildings Strategy, published by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government in 2021.

The WHP states that the UK was Europe’s ‘fastest growing’ market for heat pumps in 2024, with installations increasing by just more than 50%, from 55,000 in the previous year to 84,000.

It adds that the market for heat pumps will continue to grow ‘strongly’ thanks to funding increases in the plan and low carbon heating becoming standard under new building regulations, but the recent rapid increase in deployment rates still leaves the UK well short of 600,000 within the next two years.

The WHP also prioritises low carbon heating technologies over the installation of insulation. It says such measures, particularly solid-wall insulation, have become ‘less viable’ in recent years following supply chain cost increases. This means alternative technologies – such as rooftop solar and home batteries – are likely to offer ‘significantly more cost-effective routes’ to reducing energy bills and maintaining thermal comfort.

David Lennan, chairman of the National Warm Homes Council, said Secretary of State for Energy Ed Miliband is making a ‘generational policy mistake’ by not ensuring that homes are properly insulated. ‘It’s a fool’s errand for the retrofit industry to fit green tech in homes that are not insulated properly,’ he said.