Net zero chance of pump success

SO, Boris Johnson wants to get rid of gas boilers and replace them with heat pumps, and has launched a £5,000 grant scheme, which around 90,000 homeowners can apply for (Mirror, Oct 20).

Even if you are lucky enough to get the grant, it will only cover half the £10,000 cost of fitting. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they scrapped it after a couple of years like they did with solar panels.

Would it not have been a better idea to install heat pumps in all new houses built after, say, April 2022, so the cost could be spread over the duration of a mortgage?

Just another idea Boris forgot to think through. Or was it just to impress the delegates at the upcoming COP26 conference? Norman Galloway

Milton Keynes, Bucks

Boris Johnson needs more than witty repartee and optimistic soundbites to meet Britain’s climate obligations. Electric cars, plans for nuclear power stations that will take decades to build, and leaving everything else to market forces won’t be enough.

As well as new energy generation, storage and delivery technologies, and planting a lot more forests to absorb carbon, almost every home in the UK needs green energy conversions and modern insulation. Unless the Government covers the vast majority of costs to make our homes green, we’ve no chance of meeting our unambitious climate targets.

Brett Grainger Rugeley, Staffs

How many more of the PM’s friends are benefiting either directly or indirectly from the public purse?

The numbers entering the House of Lords are scandalous, while I can see the new boiler replacement scheme as another gift for friends of the Tory Party. Nothing is ever done to assist the lowest paid.

How will they be able to afford to convert their gas boilers?

How people still think he is doing a good job amazes me.

Fred Stones, Barnsley, South Yorks

If it’s so important that gas boilers are phased out and houses are better insulated, why are there no plans for legislation to change building regulations?

They could make it compulsory for all newbuild houses to be fitted with a heat pump, triple glazing, full insulation and solar panels, if as we are told, the cost of these measures is coming down.

Mary Gazzard, Dudley, West Mids

Anything that helps us reduce our carbon emissions is welcome

but I think the PM needs to be more ambitious if he is to get anywhere close to his net zero by 2050 target.

Poorer households are going to need much more financial help to switch to more eco-friendly methods of heating their homes. S Burgess, Southport, Merseyside

If this scheme is first come first served, those who can afford it and have the odd £5,000 to make up the difference will benefit the most, rather than people who really need the lower cost energy it provides.

We have looked into it ourselves but no way could we even cover half the cost.

Lindsay McLaughlin, Sheffield

We are being told that in the best interest of climate protection and saving the world we must phase out the gas boiler soon.

I am being phoned by British Gas every time I have a repair done to quote me for a new one.

Has no one told them about saving the world?

Dennis Grattan, Aberdeen