Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of homes and businesses (a) on and (b) off the gas grid in the UK which will need to replace or upgrade their heating system to work with a heat pump.

Earlier this year, the Department published a report on heat distribution systems in domestic buildings. This report suggests that up to 90 per cent of dwellings in the UK with an existing wet central heating system may need to replace or upgrade their heating system to meet peak winter heating demand with a low temperature heat pump, falling to 68 per cent when using a high temperature heat pump.

This research does not distinguish between homes on and off the gas grid, and does not consider non-domestic buildings. For non-domestic buildings, we intend to explore the suitability of existing heat distribution systems for low temperature operation as part of our forthcoming Non-Domestic Building Survey.