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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average cost of installing a heat pump to a typical rural off gas grid domestic property.

Evidence from market research and industry engagement suggests that mass deployment of heat pumps in the UK could lead to a significant reduction in upfront costs for domestic-sized systems due to economies of scale and other efficiencies.

In order to ease consumer costs, the Government has been providing financial support through schemes such as the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. In addition, from April 2022, the Clean Heat Grant will provide support to off gas grid households switching to low carbon heating, and the Home Upgrade Grant scheme will provide support to low income off grid households installing energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating.

The Government is developing options for how a long-term framework of policy approaches, including regulation, can combine to provide a clear direction-of-travel for industry and accelerate the uptake of low-carbon heat, including growing the heat pump market to 600,000 installations per year by 2028. Alongside the publication of the Heat and Building Strategy, we are planning to consult on new regulations to phase out fossil fuel heating in homes, businesses, and public buildings off the gas grid.