Boiler Tax to Rise to £100 as Miliband Refuses to Back Down on Heat Pump Push
Ed Miliband has announced an increase in the ‘boiler tax’, which will add an estimated £100 to the cost of replacing a gas boiler, as he refused to back down from his hated heat pump push. The Telegraph has more.
The Government confirmed on Friday that the current quota for heat pumps sold by boiler manufacturers would rise from 6% to 8% from April 2026. It means for every 92 boilers sold, manufacturers must sell eight heat pumps. If they fall short, companies face a fine of £500 per unsold heat pump.
The fines are passed on to customers in the form of higher prices to cover the losses, leading the policy to be dubbed the ‘boiler tax’.
Figures for the UK’s four biggest boiler manufacturers – Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Ideal and Baxi – suggest the 8% target is far above current demand, meaning hefty fines are inevitable.
Adrian Waddelove, of the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council, a trade body, said Mr Miliband’s new boiler tax would add about £100 to the price of each appliance.
He said: “This is effectively an additional Net Zero tax before the Chancellor even starts her budget.”
About 1.4 million gas boilers are installed annually, most of them replacing older models in the 25 million homes that use them.
The rate at which they are currently being replaced with heat pumps is so slow that it will take 150 years to complete the change. Just 30,000 were fitted to British homes from January to June this year, compared with Mr Miliband’s target of 600,000 annually by 2028.
Mike Foster, head of the Energy Utilities Alliance, the manufacturers and installers trade body, said of the boiler tax: “We have disagreed with this policy since its inception under the previous government. It imposes additional and unnecessary costs on the consumer when replacing their boiler.
“There are many ways in which the UK can increase the sale of heat pumps, and we will work constructively with the Government to do this, but we cannot accept a policy that punishes those who can’t afford to buy a heat pump, those whose home is not suitable for a heat pump, or those who do not want one.”
Worth reading in full.
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The use of heat pumps must depend on the design of the overall system. It’s unlikely that they can be used for a simple like for like replacement of an older boiler. Building new properties with no boilers is the most likely way to increase the proportion of heat pumps vs gas fired boilers.
I’ve just built a new heavily insulated house. I “could” have installed a heat pump & battery but chose not to. Why?
Because (having lived with one before) they don’t work very well especially when it gets cold (in north east UK). If they break down, finding engineer to fix it is well nigh impossible. And the electricity to keep it running is just silly money.
I have main gas supply at the entrance. Cost me £200-£300 to get it into the house to power a new efficient & immediately responsive Worcester gas boiler & hot water cylinder.
Why on earth would I have a heat pump? Miliband is demented.
In the past, houses have been built according to the climate. Therefore, in Scandinavia, where it gets very cold for long periods without a break, they have insulation as their highest goal.
In Britain, the weather is very changeable, over a period of a few days, so while insulation is important, ensuring that the cooling of warm damp air doesn’t create condensation, leading to damp patches, that are breeding grounds for mould, is more important.
These two strategies are examples of success by trial and error. Neither are better than the other, but each is what is suitable in their traditional locations. Focusing on one aspect of an Engineering project, and ignoring the rest, is likely to cause problems, and long lasting problems at that.
An A’ level Physics course should provide sufficient theory to understand this.
Prey tell me your knowledge and expertise in this field, being a lowly 50 year veteran in the building trade, i’am all ears!
Would the current electricity supply even cope with Millibrain’s target of 600,000 extra heat pumps per year?
Add the load of electric cars being charged and soon we’re talking blackouts.
Has anyone considered this? Or who cares?
They neither know nor care.
The “science” is “settled” and the orders have been received. They will just keep going in the same direction until the lights go out.
“There are many ways in which the UK can increase the sale of heat pumps, and we will work constructively with the Government to do this, but we cannot accept a policy that punishes those who can’t afford to buy a heat pump, those whose home is not suitable for a heat pump, or those who do not want one.”
What ways are these, I wonder? Subsidise them more? What else? The information is out there. If people thought they made sense, they’d be buying them. Maybe make electricity cheaper than gas? Why does this pillock want “the government” to be involved? Has he not noticed that the government is the one causing all the problems? Or he could wait until manufacturers made better heat pumps that people wanted to buy.
Or he’s waiting for the laws of thermodynamics to be ‘changed’? Perhaps they think they can redefine them like they did with the term ‘vaccine’?
That is the simple crux of it. If heat pumps and EVs were better than gas boilers and ICE cars, then people would buy them.
As soon as subsidies and quotas come in, you know the alternatives are NOT better.
This legalised market rigging is an obscenity. If the price of a heat pump was on a par with a boiler, so when my current boiler gives up, I could say to my plumber explain the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems and I will choose, the market would control supply and demand. Exactly the same for cars. But we all know that both the heat pump and the EV are ridiculously expensive compared to the boiler or petrol/diesel car. Equally, the heat pump will not perform in many houses as well, in the same way that the cars cannot go as far and take too long to recharge. Fixing the market in favour of worse products is criminal and exclusionary, as it prices many out of both options.
Such an absurd and unbelievably offensive law, and all for nothing .
How can anybody with an IQ above room temperature think this is an acceptable application of government power?
What an absolute moron.
In France, things are organised differently in one specific regard…
In the UK, Mad Ed Miliwat is the Minister for the “Department for Energy Security and Net Zero”.
In France, these two things are split from each other into two separate ministries. One is very clearly about ecology (and the hellish “transition” that we are all supposed to believe is just a wonderful idea) and the other is very clearly about industrial sovereignty, energy and digital economy. There appears to be an acceptance that the roles and responsibilities of the two ministries are not complementary (which is a good thing, in my opinion).
But in the UK, one individual, even if he is not certifiably insane, is expected to argue with himself. The role is as conflicted and tautological as Milibrain himself. Did he create the department, I wonder?
Again, for the umpteen time, that’s why they did it. 🙂
This article is a good reminder to all of us who criticize the North Koreans for not revolting against the insane genocidal policies of a dictator. Why are we putting up with the deranged edicts of Milliband?
“Just Say No” to Milliband, and the Greens, and all the other Climate Psychos.
Here’s another example of their insanity: farmers forced to add Bovaer anti-methane chemical to their cattle feed.
Danish Cows Collapse after Controversial Anti-Methane Product Added To Feed
“Danish cows are producing less milk and collapsing, with farmers placing the blame on a controversial new feed additive that’s supposed to reduce their methane emissions.”
What bright idea from the Net Stupid Zero crew is actually of any benefit to ordinary people, working or otherwise?
Exactly. Who voted for any of it? Now one council is actually sending Stasi Inspectors round to every single household to do spot checks on their black bin bags, opening one discarded bag to see if the householders have mistakenly put recyclable waste in the black bin, and then fine them £100 if they did! It is positively Orwellian, and no one should stand for it.
Militwat’s lying government says with a straight face that they will put more money in the pockets of working people while putting forward policies that achieve the complete opposite.
And it’s their own money, or their own governments issued debt, that will rapidly become their debt, in the first place… so there is no gain, just delayed loss
I’m not very good remembering quotes, especially from books I haven’t yet read, but in Orwell’s book 1984, there must be a suitable quote for this mind bending behaviour.
Off-topic: Reports of 10 people being stabbed on a train in Huntington. 2 people have been arrested. Details are sparse but this story is still unfolding. We’ll know more in the morning no doubt;
https://www.gbnews.com/news/cambridgeshire-news-two-arrested-after-multiple-people-stabbed-on-train-in-huntington
“Ten people stabbed on the LNER between London and Doncaster. I’m on the same line, going the other way. There was a time when an incident like this would have been in the news for weeks. But something equally brutal will happen tomorrow, or on Monday.
My country isn’t my country anymore. The population is unhinged, the streets unsafe. If you’re out and about all the time, on trains, in London, you just feel like you’re waiting your turn. Mugging, assault, stabbing, whatever.
It never used to be like this.
We were civilised.” Dr Philip Kiszely.
What a c….!
People getting stabbed on a regular basis In the UK is now normal! Stop responding with fear and start easing into your new reality..chill out man/they/them/its all perfectly normal and always has been!
And don’t forget, the new British are a little bit killy,crimmey,stabby and rapey but hey, we’re all in this big melting pot aren’t we?
As for heat pumps, 35%C is the best you will ever get out of these kilowatt eaters! All you heat pump futuretemps tell me a model and manufacturer that does better! I dare you!
I’m sure you can get temperatures higher than 35 deg C, in hot weather! 🙂
35°c … Oh what a barmy temperature!
The maximum that a reverse fridge, sorry, heat pump, can out put is…wait for it…35°c!..35°c ..wow imagine that! Tepid water a soupçon but yet not hot!
Boy! Imagine the insulation needed?
Btw 35°c feels warm to the touch!
Nine people with life-threatening injuries after mass stabbing on train in Cambridgeshire – latest – BBC News https://share.google/ppgL9w8OBI8UwdRwH
Let me guess, the purps name is BOB SMITH, or Ray Curuthers!?
Official police information about the multiple stabbing attack at a Cambridgeshire railway station is not to speculate and.. and ,not to name guess at this particularly hurtful time for the loved ones and families involved..Cambridgeshire police have issued a statement..” our hearts go out to all the loved ones and families involved in this horrific crime!
Certain sources have said ” it isn’t Mr Cohen ” other sources have said it was probably was ” bob chambers of defrost lane, or dick slippery of 5 Finnish way Campden town!
Police have denied claims it was a legal/illegal immigrant called Nongit Ndoyrhaprczzachvy of foreign decent.
I’m so mad about this injustice that I feel like spraying Stonehenge in orange paint to protest
Why does Ed think he can continuously use the taxpayer as his piggy bank? Things are about to change in this gov’ts after the horrific stabbings last night in Cambridgeshire.