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.”