The move, in a draft document obtained by the DeSmog investigative journalism group and seen by the Guardian, appears to be part of an intensive two-year lobbying effort by a key gas boiler industry organisation, which has been critical of heat pumps, and promoted hydrogen for home heating to government and opposition parties, despite strong evidence of its unsuitability.
The Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), an industry association that represents boiler manufacturers and other gas companies has made a submission to a government consultation calling for measures forcing the industry to install more heat pumps to be delayed until 2026.
Under the consultation on the clean heat market mechanism, published in March, ministers are proposing that, from 2024, manufacturers of fossil fuel boilers would face a quota for heat pump installations relative to their gas or oil boiler installations, with fines for failure to sell enough heat pumps.
But in the draft, obtained by DeSmog and seen by the Guardian, the government targets are said by the EUA to be "unachievable" because of the short timeframe, the difficulty manufacturers would face in gearing up to meet the regulations and the cost of the fines, which the organisation has calculated at a potential £300m to UK industry.
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