In response to a mounting backlash over the planned ban of gas boilers, Boris Johnson has caved in to growing criticism and has delayed it until 2040, kicking the detested plan into the long grass. This is a victory for common sense and will be widely welcomed.
According to news reports, the Prime Minister is set to delay the gas boiler ban by 5 years, shifting it to 2040. Boris Johnson’s about-turn is a big win for critics who have been campaigning against this extremely costly and unpopular plan in recent weeks.
Sensible though these changes are, there is more to do, and the GWPF is calling on the Prime Minister to extend the delay also to the planned 2025 ban on gas boilers in new-build properties. This plan threatens to add many thousands of pounds to a new-built property and would make buying a new home unaffordable for most young Britons and ordinary families.
Boris Johnson is right to be concerned about the social and political risks and repercussions of a hugely unpopular ban. The GWPF has been urging the Prime Minister to pause and reconsider the poorly designed and extremely costly green home heating plans. His decision to delay the ban will now allow ministers to go back to the drawing board and consider realistic alternatives.
The GWPF’s director Benny Peiser said:
The gas boiler reprieve is a clear indication that growing criticism of the ban has made a real difference. Johnson’s intervention, overriding industry lobbying, is a welcome development and marks the first significant success in the campaign against Net Zero’s astronomical cost burden.”
It is almost certain that it won’t be the last costly Net Zero plan that will have to be delayed, watered down or scrapped as public concern and anger grows.”
Britons are set to be allowed up to five more years before a ban on sales of all new gas boilers comes into force, in a major row-back for Boris Johnson amid a backlash over the soaring cost of ‘net zero’ ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow later this year.
The Prime Minister is looking at delaying the ban by five years to 2040, in a move which would give millions of UK households more time for new hydrogen boilers and heat-pumps to fall in price, and for businesses to pump more money into shifting people over gradually.
The public is set to be incentivised to buy an eco-friendly heat-pump next time their boiler breaks down – but the delay to introducing the ban means working boilers could have to be taken out before 2050, or the UK could fail to hit its ‘net zero’ carbon emission targets.
It comes amid a mounting backlash over the spiralling cost of Mr Johnson’s so-called green revolution, with Government insiders fearful that the proposals could add another £400billion on top of the enormous sums accrued during the Covid pandemic.
Hydrogen boilers are one of the possible replacements for gas boilers, with others including ground source or air source heat pumps, but these cost upwards of £14,000 or £11,000 respectively.
Other options include solar photovoltaic panels or solar water heating which both come in at about £5,000 for a full fitting. A hydrogen-ready boiler is intended to be a like-for-like swap for an existing gas boiler, but the cost is unknown, with estimates ranging from £1,500 to £5,000.
The Prime Minister is looking at delaying the ban by five years to 2040, in a move which would give millions of UK households more time for new hydrogen boilers and heat-pumps to fall in price, and for businesses to pump more money into shifting people over gradually.
As part of the net zero plan – which would decarbonise the economy by 2050 – No10 had been expected to publish in the spring details of the strategy for moving away from gas boilers ahead of Glasgow’s COP26 climate change conference in November. But this has been delayed until the autumn amid mounting alarm about the bill.
The Chancellor – who is already looking for ways to pay back the £400billion cost of the Covid crisis and the £10billion a year required to reform long-term care for the elderly – is understood to have baulked at estimates of hitting net zero at more than £1.4trillion.