Miliband Admits Heat Pumps May Never be Cheaper than Gas Boilers
Heat pumps may never be cheaper than gas boilers, Ed Miliband has admitted as Labour sneaks a new boiler tax through Parliament that will push up prices
The Telegraph has more.
The Energy Secretary made the comments as Labour snuck a boiler tax through Parliament with minimal scrutiny on Wednesday, despite warnings the move will push up prices.
Under the scheme, which will come into force in April, boiler manufacturers will be fined if they fail to sell enough heat pumps, which companies have warned will force them to increase the price of installing a new gas boiler by as much as £120.
When asked to confirm whether the Government would abandon the proposed 2035 ban on new gas boilers at a Parliamentary committee, he said: “We can say to people you need to get a heat pump, not a gas boiler, potentially, at some point in the future.
“But I’m very wary of saying we’re going to stop people having gas boilers at a point when we can’t guarantee heat pumps are going to be cheaper for people.
“We must proceed in a way that we can say to people they will be better off in the transition.
“I do not want to be in a position where we say to people ‘you must go down this road’ and then people say – rightly – ‘you have made me worse off’.”
Heat pumps currently cost around £10,000 if bought without any Government subsidy, compared to around £3,000 for a gas boiler.
The relatively high price of electricity also means they are often more expensive to run than a gas boiler, despite being more efficient.
Ministers tabled the powers to enact the boiler tax as a statutory instrument, a type of legislation that can be passed with minimal scrutiny.
The measure was brought to a delegated committee in a side room of Parliament on Monday night, where there was little debate and no vote.
Labour MPs were only forced to vote for the policy at all after Tories in the chamber shouted out their opposition on Tuesday, triggering a ballot.
See more here dailysceptic.org
Header image: Insulation Superstore
Bold emphasis added
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi PSI Readers,
I once was a GREENY as I got involved in a project to convert a waste product of the processing of flax straw industry to make a very unique paper product which was used to make cigaret paper or a very thin paper which could be printed on both sides because the paper was opaque so that the printing on one side could not be seen on the opposite side.
In a little more than a year I profitably. sold $400,000 of fuel pellets of this waste product. However, it was easy to see that this fuel was not even a drop in a bucket being used by this community of only 15,000 people. to heat their homes and businesses during a normal winter. OBVIOUSLY THERE IS NO PRACTICAL SUBSTITUTE FOR FOSSIL ENERGY EXCEPT CONTROLLABLE NUCLEAR FISSION.
Have a good day
.
Reply
MattH
| #
Hi Jerry. We have some very practical hydro and geo-thermal electricity production in New Zealand.
Reply
Boris Badenov
| #
MattH, you chaps reside on a bunch of volcanoes and actually have mountains. All GB has is a bunch of blithering wankers. GB needs nukes not the gas bags in Government.
Reply