The UK is lagging behind the European average in heat pump installations and has the worst heat pump sales in Europe.
That’s according to a new analysis by Greenpeace UK which suggests of the 21 countries for which data was available, the UK came last on heat pump sales last year, with just 1.3 heat pumps sold per 1,000 households.
The authors of the report estimate the UK’s heat pump sales per household were almost three times lower than in Poland, ten times lower than in France and nearly 32 times lower than in Norway.
Based on data from European Heat Pump Association, the report also suggests the UK was second to last when it came to total installations, with just ten installations per 1,000 households.
The UK installed more than five times fewer heat pumps than Lithuania, more than 30 times fewer than Estonia and 60 times fewer heat pumps than Norway, Greenpeace UK said.
Greenpeace UK’s Policy Director Doug Parr said: “If the government wants a chance to catch up, it needs a proper strategy and enough cash to clean up our homes on a massive scale.
“This means substantial grants for heat pump installations, especially for the poorest families, removing VAT on green home technologies and a phase-out of gas boilers early next decade.
“Without these measures, which many of our European neighbours already have in place, we’ll fall further behind on the ‘green homes’ leaderboard. But more importantly, we’ll fail to remove emissions from homes fast enough to meet our legally binding climate obligations.”
A BEIS spokesperson said: “As set out in the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan, we are committed to greatly accelerating the UK’s deployment of heat pumps from around 35,000 this year, to 600,000 a year by 2028.
“We are confident that the upfront costs will fall in the coming years, and we will look to help the market drive down these costs.
“We will set out how this will be achieved in the forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy, with fairness and affordability for both households and taxpayers at the heart of our plans.”
