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.
Worth reading in full.
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Couple of questions have any of these people in the reshuffle actually been elected..
Have any of them worked in anything or anywhere else not involved with government, pr,politics or lobbying?
Or are they just another bunch of club parasites
In much the same vein, is Ms Gray’s new job something that was already covered by existing staff or have they just created a new non-job to prevent the indignity of a constructive dismissal claim? (Spoiler alert I think we know the answer. The answer to most hurty-feelings in the public sector always seems to be an additional dollop of taxpayers’ money.)
Our elected Members of Parliament have their paymasters..
There is no Democracy…
Notice who’s received the most…. The Education Secretary….
Option C I think.
Sounds like a non-job to keep her in the tent.
A word salad. Which regions and what nations?
Was there a recruitment process?
Did she pass EDI specifications?
I assume a peerage will also be involved.
I suspect no party wants to read her memoirs.
She looks ” white ” to me…oh; dear.
A chair shuffling exercise at great cost to the taxpayers. What a surprise.
“envoy for regions and nations?”
WTF are they on about? This is not the United States of America this is little old Blighty. More “devolution” on the way. More devolved “assemblies” comprising carefully chosen pigs more equal than the rest of us but at yet more cost to taxpayers. In other words more controls and greater impoverishment.
Off-T
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2024/03/majestic-wine-brexit/#:~:text=The%20overhaul%20means%20the%20amount,the%2012.5%25%20ABV%20duty%20rate.
More bloody interference intended to screw taxpayers.
Kneel and his bunch of thieving, treasonous parasites are determined to kill the hospitality sector.
Rats getting off Shagger Starmer’s sinking ship.
And what will the “regions and nations” think of it?
My bet is, is that she hasn’t been signed by L’Oréal
They say your inner self becomes etched on your face as you get older…
A nice lesson for Ms Gray that “what goes around, comes around.”
Keir-Ching! will get the same lesson in due course.