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UK Gov unveils £5000 grant for homeowners to replace their gas boilers

Date: October 20, 2021 Sunil Jha Sunil Jha
UK Gov unveils £5000 grant for homeowners to replace their gas boilers 
The UK government has reportedly announced that it will provide subsidies of £5,000 for homeowners in Wales and England starting April 2022. According to reports, this new subsidy is part of a new initiative to get homeowners to replace their old gas heaters with low-carbon heat pumps.



The new grants will fall under the UK government's £3.9 billion carbon-cutting strategy to reduce emissions caused by heating houses and other buildings. After 2035, it is hoped that no new gas heaters would be sold in the nation. The new fund also aims to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings and social housing.



However, analysts are arguing that the announced grants are too small and the overall plan is not ambitious enough. According to ministers, the incentives will bring heat pumps in-line with the cost of a new gas boiler. However, the £450 million set out for subsidies over the next 3 years will only cover a total of 90,000 pumps.



Mike Childs, head of science, Friends of the Earth, stated that the total heat pump units the grants would cover are simply not much in number, implying that the UK will fall short of its climate targets.



Childs also added that these grants will primarily benefit the wealthiest of households.



Caroline Jones, a climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, stated the government needs to contribute more funds to speed up the transition.



A clearer signal would have been phasing out new boilers before 2035, Jones added.



According to Jonny Marshall, sr economist, Resolution Foundation, a poverty-focused think tank, the UK would fail to reach its aim of lowering emissions from houses in half by 2035.



For the record, the United Kingdom has pledged to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.



However, according to a panel of government advisers, Boris Johnson's government has viable plans in place to roughly accomplish just a fifth of this goal.



Kwasi Kwarteng, UK's Business and Energy Secretary, stated that the subsidies to encourage the use of heat pumps, which will be available next April, will lower the cost of the comparatively new technology by 2030.



Source credit: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58959045

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Sunil Jha

Sunil Jha has been a part of the content industry for close to two years. Having previously worked as a voice over artist and sportswriter, he now focuses on writing articles for newsorigins.com, across a slew of topics, ranging from technology to trade and finance. With a business-oriented educational background, Sunil brings forth the expertise of deep-dive research and a strategic approach in his write ups.