Clive Jones has written to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, seeking positive change on heat pumps

Wokingham MP Clive Jones has written to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Milliband, seeking positive change on heat pumps.

Wokingham’s new Liberal Democrat MP, Clive Jones, has written a letter to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Milliband, on behalf of a constituent, looking to widen the eligibility criteria for the heat pump grant.

Clive Jones told the Secretary that investing in heat pumps in order to cut carbon from our energy networks is a staunch belief of the Liberal Democrats, as is ending fuel poverty by 2025 through free retrofits for low-income homes and a £6bn a year investment on home insulation and zero-carbon heating. As such, writes Wokingham’s MP, the Liberal Democrats would like to adopt a Zero-Carbon Heat Strategy which would include reforming the Renewable Heat Incentive.

These changes are especially important following the previous Conservative Government’s disappointing decision to scrap the Green Homes Grant, which supported heat pump installation across the country.

Clive Jones then highlights how, in the experience of the constituent who wrote to him, the heat pump grant’s eligibility is far too restrictive. This constituent told Clive;

“The reason we're not eligible is because the government grant is only for small heat pumps with a maximum 11kw.  We would need minimum 15kw, ideally 16kw for our home.

“We won't be the only house in the constituency or country who will find themselves unable to use the grant scheme due to the narrowness of the eligibility criteria, and given the expense of them at the moment (due to the market not being in a position to bring prices down yet), most won't therefore get a heat pump.  Full price is too expensive even for those of us with a steady income.”

This is not an outlier. Most sources agree that for a heat pump to be effective, it needs to output 5kW for a smaller home, and up to 16kW for a larger home. In order to meet the country’s crucial climate targets, Clive Jones asks that the grant’s current limit of 11kW heat pumps be raised.

In his letter Clive Jones, the MP for Wokingham, wrote:
“Retrofitting homes with heat pumps and insulation is vital in the fight to tackle the climate emergency and is one of the easiest steps the country can take now to cut emissions which brings me to my reason for writing to you.

“There will need to be mass deployment of heat pumps and there needs to be greater intervention from the state to achieve this.

“I write to ask that the criteria for the heat pump grant be widened if the government is serious about energy decarbonisation by 2030.”