Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised more time for households to make the transition to heat pumps under plans to decarbonise the country’s homes.
The target was for no gas boilers to be installed in new homes by 2025, and for the phasing out of boilers altogether to begin in 2033.
But speaking this afternoon the Prime Minister told a press conference (main picture) that households will only have to make the switch when they’re changing their boiler anyway, and not until 2035.
He said the government would never force anyone to replace a gas boiler with a heat pump. Instead, householders will only be required to switch when they are due to change their boiler anyway.
Heat pumps, he said, needed to be made cheaper without imposing high costs on families at a time while technology is still expensive.
The Prime Minister also pushed back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030 to 2035, aligning with EU countries like Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
Kicking the can down the road? Only time will tell.
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