£14M cash boost for low carbon heating

More than £14M is being made available to accelerate the installation of heat pumps and heat networks across the country, as a new scheme launches to train thousands of installers.

Over £9.7M will go towards four projects based across the country, from Bristol to Cambridgeshire – helping cut costs of these low carbon technologies, and reducing disruption to consumers by coordinating the wide-spread rollout in concentrated areas.

While a new £5M Heat Training Grant will support 10,000 trainees over the next two years to become low carbon heating experts – creating new green jobs and growing our economy in flourishing green industries. Grants of up to £500 will go towards training with heating manufacturers such as Panasonic, Valliant and Worcester-Bosch expected to offer additional discounts to participating trainees.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Lord Callanan, said: “This funding will give the rollout of heat pumps a huge boost by making them cheaper and easier to install, and importantly helping more households move away from costly fossil fuels.

“But we need a skilled workforce to deliver this, so we’re training thousands of people to be experts at installing heat pumps and heat networks, driving the country’s push towards net zero.

“We’re also making sure the cost of installing a heat pump is more affordable than ever before through grants of up to £6,000 through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and a zero rate on VAT. So, it’s right we also put funding in place to train installers to meet demand.”

Heat pumps are highly efficient and reliable and are key to cutting carbon emissions using cheaper renewable energy produced here in the UK.

The heat networks training courses will cover the full lifecycle of the systems from initial design to building, operation, and maintenance. Government is also aiming to develop a series of courses and online training videos for heat networks operation and maintenance.

By providing heat networks training support alongside heat pumps, areas of overlap and collaboration can be better explored, particularly around the installation of large-scale heat pumps for heat networks and shared ground loops.

Government is now seeking expressions of interest from training providers who wish to offer the new grants for heat pump training.

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