Boris Johnson's adviser admits heat pumps won't reduce energy bills

Installing a heat pump will push energy bills higher, the Government's adviser has admitted, despite ministers pressing the technology on households.

The Climate Change Committee, the Government's independent adviser on tackling climate change, has found the running cost of heat pumps is 10pc higher than that of a gas boiler – equal to £100 more a year.

This excludes the upfront capital costs of around £10,000 per household that is needed to replace a gas boiler with a heat pump, according to the Energy and Utilities Alliance, a trade body.

The CCC’s report said: “Even under current record high gas prices, our estimates suggest that the average heating bill for a heat pump is around 10pc higher than for a gas boiler.”

Heat pumps run on electricity, which is around four times more expensive than gas because of the way carbon taxes are applied. These taxes add £93 to an average electricity bill but only £3 to gas bills, according to supplier Octopus, although this is currently being reviewed.

The report added: “Removing energy levies from electricity will directly lower running costs for heat pumps, making them more financially viable.

“In the medium term, heat pump efficiency improvements should also help bring their running costs closer in line with gas boilers.”

Mike Foster, of the EUA, said the data had been “hidden away from the main headlines” and confirmed fears installing heat pumps would worsen the effects of the cost of living crisis.

He said those who suggest heat pumps are the answer to soaring energy bills – particularly as the energy price cap is set to increase later this year – “risk heaping more misery onto ordinary, hard-working families.”

Mr Foster added: “The Government should be looking at ways of reducing our heating bills, not ramping them up. They have a target of 600,000 heat pumps a year to be fitted into homes by 2030. This will force up heating bills, not just according to our analysis, but also to the Government’s own advisors. It’s time for a reset.”

Mr Foster suggested the Government should instead push zero-carbon hydrogen gas boilers, rather than “forcing expensive heat pumps onto people”.

Heat pumps have faced criticism in the past after it emerged millions of radiators are too small to work with the new technology.

The pumps need larger radiators to achieve the same heat output as gas boilers, which heat water to much higher temperatures, but according to a Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy study, some 99pc of British homes do not have radiators large enough to heat a room on the coldest winter's day, using a low-temperature heat pump, the most common model.

Separate research found that nearly two in five British people would replace a broken gas boiler with a like-for-like model, while just 12pc would opt for an air or ground source heat pump, according to research by law firm Shakespeare Martineau.

A BEIS spokesman said it was trying to bring down the cost of heat pump installation by up to half by 2025.