Boris Johnson is reported to be offering £400 million ($555M) in grants for the installation of heat pumps that will most likely benefit 60,000 of the richest UK households (Green grants of £7,000 to help households replace gas boilers).
The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) has explicitly warned against exactly this kind of travesty, noting that because the £7,000 ($9,705) subsidy covers only a part of the overall heat pump costs, which could amount to £12,000–£20,000 ($16,638–$22,730) (including installation and the additional insulation required), it is almost certain that the beneficiaries of Boris Johnson’s subsidy grant would overwhelmingly be well-off households with cash to spare.
In effect, the only people who will be able to take advantage of the grant will be those who don’t actually need it, and the heat pump subsidy is yet another wealth transfer from poorer taxpayers and consumers to richer householders.
As if this gift to the rich were not bad enough, Mr. Johnson is also reported to be on the verge of putting a swing tax on natural gas to force households to switch to heat pumps.
This gas tax adds insult to injury since the households hit by its costs will be precisely those that must save before they can afford to install a new heating system or take advantage of the subsidy.
In conjunction with Mr. Johnson’s grant for richer households, we can now see that the green home-heating scheme unfolding is outrageous, unjust, and ill-considered. It is bad politics and worse morals.
Mr. Johnson is fond of classical quotations, but this time it seems that he has found inspiration in the Bible:
“To those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” (Matthew 13:12)
Dr. John Constable, the GWPF energy editor, said:
“Support for low carbon heating installation should only proceed if the grants cover the full cost of heat pumps and are rigorously means-tested to ensure that the support is limited to those that need it. Otherwise, the scheme must be abandoned.”
Dr. Benny Peiser, GWPF director, said:
“Boris Johnson’s utopian Net Zero plans stumble from one blunder to another. The Prime Minister cannot really want to hurt lower and middle-income voters by increasing their heating bills with a gas tax and then giving that tax cash away in heat pump grants to rich householders. But that is exactly what his blinkered green advisors are actually proposing.”
“If he doesn’t get a grip soon, his time in Downing Street will end in humiliating failure. This has the makings of a political fiasco far worse than Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax.”
Note for editors
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For the GWPF’s criticism of heat pump grants for the rich see A welcome U-turn: Ministers backtrack on gas boiler ban
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For a critique of the proposed tax on natural gas see How to and how not to cut UK electricity bills
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For the GWPF’s cost estimate of decarbonizing housing see Net Zero cost sheet: Decarbonising housing
Bojo has got to go…………..
Johnson needs to be removed from his throne of power out of #10 Downing Street and maybe just the Nuthouse outside of London
residing in sunny LA, electric heat pumps are ubiquitous in the various houses and apartments, indeed I have one in my home. I can assure you that heat pumps are barely able to maintain a comfortable warm temperature in our bitter cold winter days that drop to the low 50s overnight. Granted, there have been occasional instances of weather when a below freezing (32f/0c) temp is experienced but again that is rare.
I can only imagine what it would be like to rely on electric heat pump in UK winter, much less a northern US winter; no way the system could keep the house warm and the ever present danger of power outage when too many heat pumps are running simultaneously, just like when too many A/C are running simultaneously on a hot 100f+ summer day in CA.
Good luck to you Britons, better put on an extra cardigan or two.
“For The Rich, Taxes For The Rest”
They just copy-pasted the system for electric vehicles, which are too expensive, even with subsidy, for the financially less fortunate people.