‘I’m the first man in Britain to get a heat pump for free’

An Oxfordshire homeowner is to become the first person in Britain to have a heat pump installed for free.

Gary Smith’s installation quote fell to zero after the Government increased the boiler upgrade scheme grant to £7,500 last month.

Mr Smith had been told by his supplier, Octopus Energy, that putting in an air source heat pump at his property would cost him £7,500, minus the heat pump grant, which at the time stood at £5,000.

Faced with a £2,500 bill, Mr Smith, 33, was weighing up whether to go ahead with the upgrade.

But then an Octopus salesman rang to say the Government had increased the grant, which would now cover the full cost of the installation at his detached new-build home in Bicester.

“I was surprised,” Mr Smith said. “And I decided to go through with it.

Making it free made it a no-brainer.” In September, Rishi Sunak upped the grants available to homeowners from £5,000 for air source heat pumps and £6,000 for ground source models, as part of an overhaul of net zero policies.

Heat pump installations cost between £7,000 and £15,000.

Mr Smith is thought to be the first homeowner in the country to secure a commercially available heat pump free of charge by making the most of the new higher grant.

The sale of new oil and gas boilers is to be banned from 2035. The Government’s boiler upgrade scheme aims to slash Britain’s CO2 emissions by encouraging a switch to heat pumps – a greener electric alternative.

However, in its first year, fewer than 10,000 of 30,000 heat pump grant vouchers were redeemed, leaving 60pc of the scheme’s £150m budget unused. And while the grant has increased to £7,500, the £150m-a-year cap has not changed, meaning only 20,000 households can apply for a voucher this year, down from 30,000.

The total is far lower than the Government’s target to persuade 600,000 households a year to switch to heat pumps by 2028. If the £ 150m cap remains, just 3pc of the homeowners targeted will be able to get the grants.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “It remains our ambition for 600,000 heat pumps a year to be installed by 2028 – backed by a 50pc increase in cash support – making the scheme one the most generous of its kind in Europe.”