The Government, today (2nd March) has announced a raft of measures to accelerate the installation of heat pumps and heat networks across the country, with a new scheme to train thousands of installers, and investment in a number of projects designed to facilitate mass deployment. These measures join the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), which provides up to £6,000 towards the cost of heat pump installation for households looking to move away from fossil fuels.
Funded Training
£5 million has been set-aside to support 10,000 trainee low carbon heating installers over the next two-years. The Heat Training Grant will provide up to £500 towards training with heating manufacturers such as Panasonic, Valliant & Worcester Bosch.
£500 would cover most of the cost of a Level 3 Heat Pump Course, which takes around a week to complete for an experienced Plumbing and Heating Installer. It is expected that heating manufacturers will offer additional discounts to participating trainees, such as money-off products and extra training.
The Heat Networks training courses will cover the full life-cycle of a system – from initial design to building, operation, and maintenance. There are also plans to develop a series of courses and online training videos for heat network operation and maintenance.
Government is now seeking expressions of interest for training providers who wish to offer new grant for Heat Pump Training.
Funded Projects
Nearly £10 million is going towards four projects – two in Oxfordshire, One in Bristol and One in Cambridgeshire – which will focus on co-ordinating the wide-spread roll out of Heat Pumps/Heat Networks in concentrated areas to reduce disruption for consumers.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Lord Callanan said:
“This funding will give the rollout of Heat Pumps a huge boost by making them cheaper and easier to install, and importantly helping more households move away from costly fossil fuels”
“But we need a skilled workforce to deliver this, so we’re training thousands of people to be experts at installing Heat Pumps and Heat Networks, driving the country’s push towards Net Zero”
“We’re also making sure the cost of installing a Heat Pump is more affordable than ever, before through grants of up to £6,000 through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and a zero rate on VAT. So, it’s right we also put funding in place to train installers to meet demand”
