More than £60 million allocated for a government scheme promoting heat pump installations has gone unspent, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the initiative.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) helps homes and small businesses in England and Wales switch to greener heating systems by offering grants of up to £7,500 for installing heat pumps or biomass boilers.
The scheme, which offers grants to households replacing fossil fuel boilers with heat pumps, was budgeted at £150 million per annum from 2022 to 2025.
However, statistics released by Ofgem reveal that only £88,821,500 was spent in Year 2 (April 2023 – March 2024), while £50,084,000 was spent in Year 1 (May 2022 – March 2023).
This leaves a significant portion of the allocated budget unutilised.
According to the report, a total of 37,879 BUS voucher applications were received during the period from 23rd May 2022, to 31st March 2024.
Out of these, 26,532 vouchers were issued, amounting to £158,775,000.
