Comment on Heat and Buildings Strategy

Commenting on the Heat and Buildings Strategy, Sepi Golzari-Munro, Acting Director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “This year's gas price shock has brought home the UK's vulnerability to the geopolitical whims of Putin's Russia and other potentially unfriendly regimes. But by reducing our dependence on volatile global gas markets and transitioning to clean heating systems, the PM has succeeded in prioritising the UK's energy security while levelling up the country. Boosting industry and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs up and down the UK is emerging as a clear co-benefit of his Net Zero agenda.

“What's more, the new grants, alongside plans to shift levies away from electricity bills, will make good on the Government's drive to ensure that going green is the natural and obvious choice for consumers, ensuring heat pumps are no more expensive - and perhaps even cheaper - than installing and running a new gas boiler. Currently, three quarters of Brits don't know that gas boilers are a source of nitrous oxide air pollution which can contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular problems. And families with children are among the keenest to move to clean heating, with 75% interested in moving away from gas if made easy to do so.”

A new poll, commissioned from YouGov by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), has found that only one in four people (26%) know that natural gas boilers are a source of nitrous oxide (NOx) air pollution, which can contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular problems.