Fewer than half the projected heat pumps installed by end of 2023

Report highlights insufficient tailored energy advice as a “significant barrier”, with consumers lacking both awareness and confidence about heat pumps

Decarbonising the UK’s 28 million homes is central to achieving net zero, and the government sees heat pumps as key to ensuring success. However, less than half the expected number have been installed according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report examining the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) progress in decarbonising home heating.

The government expects to install 600,000 heat pumps annually by 2028, and up to 1.6 million annually by 2035. However, the report, which scrutinised DESNZ’s progress since the Heat and Buildings Strategy was published in 2021, found just 18,900 heat pumps were installed between May 2022 and December 2023.

Dr Anton Ianakiev, Professor in Sustainable Energy Systems at Nottingham Trent University said: “The problem is ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are much more expensive and they require an area where the underground pipe needs to be installed.”

Ianakiev’s research suggests just three GSHP can meet the demands of 27 homes. “GSHP will be economically sustainable if they feed not a single house but a cluster of houses. In this way the initial expense can be shared between a cluster of houses, but could be very rewarding.”

A lack of advice on how to decarbonise homes is also responsible for the low uptake with a survey revealing 30% of households had never heard, or hardly knew anything, about it. Stew Horne, Head of Policy at the Energy Saving Trust said the report highlights “the clear gap between the government’s heat pump ambitions and people’s awareness of and confidence in the best low carbon options for their home.”

The “lack of consistent provision of tailored energy advice in England is a significant barrier” and the government should do more to make heat pumps an “attractive and financially viable option including introducing mechanisms to reduce running costs,” added Horne.

“There are too many myths surrounding heat pumps, and a staged energy efficiency journey would allow for more targeted, bespoke approaches, leading to greater success.”

Gerald Charles, Head of Retrofit at the Centre for Sustainable Energy said there needs to be a national communications campaign which explains how heat pumps fit into the low carbon transition and sets out a clear vision for decarbonising heating.

“We need staged customer journey programmes catering to specific needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach,” added Charles. “There are too many myths surrounding heat pumps, and a staged energy efficiency journey would allow for more targeted, bespoke approaches, leading to greater success. People are resistant to being told what to do – they need to trust the process.”

Philip Dunne MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee said the report is “a timely reminder of the challenges that remain in improving the energy performance of our homes. Decarbonising older and less efficient homes will be more difficult, but it is an unavoidable part of the net zero transition. Rapid adoption of innovative technologies like heat pumps can play a bigger role in moving these harder to insulate homes away from fossil fuel heat.”

However, successfully installing heat pumps often requires significant additional work and the defunct Energy Efficiency Taskforce “was expected to propose innovative ways to make installations and retrofits more affordable; improving affordability must remain top of the agenda,” said Dunne.