Headlines

• UK remains laggard of Europe on heat decarbonisation, while France surges ahead

• France installed ten times more heat pumps than the UK last year

• Government has five years to achieve a ten-fold increase in heat pump installations

• Massive ramp-up of heat pump deployment needed to meet climate change goals

France is cutting carbon from heating buildings ten times faster than the UK by deploying more than ten times the number of heat pumps, a new report reveals.

Last year, France sold 621,000 heat pumps, saving 15.6Mt of CO2 emissions, while the UK sold just 55,000 heat pumps, saving1.5Mt of CO2 emissions, and had the lowest installation rate of 21 European countries.

The UK Government has set a target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, meaning they must achieve a ten-fold increase in deployment within five years to catch up with where France is at now.

The new report, by net zero charity MCS Charitable Foundation, assesses why the UK is lagging behind targets and sets out lessons the Government must learn from France if it is to meet climate change goals.

It highlights how the French government seized opportunities when there was disruption in global energy markets to refocus attention away from gas and oil onto electrifying heat. In addition, France has had energy efficiency standards for new-build homes for more than a decade that have accelerated heat pump deployment, and energy efficiency has been a political priority across different political parties. In 2019, Emmanuel Macron’s government introduced financial incentives that saw a near-doubling of air-to-water heat pump installations within a year, building on previous incentive schemes [2]. As a result of sustained support for heat pumps, France had more than 30,000 full time jobs in the heat pump industry in 2019, and increased from 100,000 sales in 2010 to over 600,000 sales by 2022.

By contrast, in the UK in 2019, after years of stop-start policies and inadequate funding, delays in regulations for new homes, and insufficient consumer information, there were only 2,000 jobs supported by the heat pump industry, and only a tenth of the number of heat pump installations seen in France.

The UK is now beginning to scale up heat pump deployment, seeing a 40% increase in the heat pump market in 2022 since the energy crisis began. [3] But rather than a gradual rise in heat pump numbers, as France has achieved over 15 years, the UK Government must now initiate an exponential increase in the heat pump market.

The rate of growth the UK must achieve would be unprecedented, but could deliver as many as 50,000 new jobs as well as cutting energy bills and carbon, MCS Charitable Foundation argues. [4]

The charity is calling for the Government to immediately commit to making heat pumps mandatory for all new homes, scaling up and extending grants for homeowners to install heat pumps and introducing new loan schemes, and a massive consumer awareness campaign to help people access funding.

David Cowdrey, Director of External Affairs at MCS Charitable Foundation, said “Heat pumps are an extremely efficient technology for cutting carbon and bills, but the UK has so far not capitalised on their potential. With other countries such as France surging ahead, the race is on for the UK to step up.

“The Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme and zero-rated VAT on heat pumps have helped set the UK towards rising installations. But we need a much more comprehensive set of policy measures to meet the Government’s targets, including mandating solar and heat pumps for all new build homes, to help create the tens of thousands of jobs we know a thriving heat pump market can support.”

Charlotte Lee, Chief Executive of the Heat Pump Association commented: “The French heat pump market is ten times the size of the UK’s. This report compellingly demonstrates this is due to clear and decisive policy by the French government in exactly the same areas the UK heat pump industry has advocated for years. Strict new-build standards, grants that make consumers’ choice for heat pumps compelling, low electricity prices, the building of the installer base, and the phase-out of fossil fuel boilers have been major contributors to France’s success.

“There is still time to meet the UK Government’s target of 600,000 heat pumps installed annually by 2028, but to do so similar swift and decisive action to France is needed – implementation of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards in 2025, setting of clear dates to end the sale of new fossil fuel boilers, reducing electricity prices and improving installer training and standards across the entire heating industry.”

Dr Jan Rosenow, Director of European Programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project, said: “Leading heat pump markets around the world have one thing in common: a stable and clear policy and regulatory landscape. If the policy package is right, consumer demand and industry investment follows as experience from other countries shows very clearly. The UK can be a global leader on clean heating but this requires long-term policies to drive consumer demand and supply chain expansion.”

Notes to editors

1.      The report includes the latest market figures from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA), which show that the UK installed 1.9 heat pumps per 1,000 households in 2022. In France, this figure was 20.01, and in Finland, 69.3. https://www.ehpa.org/press_releases/market-report-2023/

2.      French Government grants that were available to all households saw an 80% increase in air-to-water heat pump installations, going from 90,000 installations in 2018 to 175,000 in 2019.

3.      The European Heat Pump Association estimates a 40% growth in the UK heat pump market in 2022.

4.      The heat pump industry in France supports 45,000 jobs. In the UK, the Heat Pump Association (HPA) has calculated that 50,000 jobs would be needed to meet the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.

The UK Government is set to consult on the Future Homes Standard for England over the summer. This would set standards for all new-build homes. Surveys have found that a majority of the public and of MPs support making heat pumps mandatory for new homes in England.