Britain bottom of European table for heat pumps – but which country is best?

The UK languishes at the bottom of a ranking of 21 European countries for installing heat pumps that help fight climate change, new research shows.

The UK government has set a target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, which means they need to achieve a tenfold increase in deployment within five years to keep up with where France is today.

Figures from the European Heat Pump Association show that the UK will have installed 1.9 heat pumps per 1,000 households by 2022.

In France this figure was 20.01 and in Finland 69.3.

A new report says the French government seized opportunities when there was a disruption in global energy markets to shift focus from gas and oil to blistering heat.

The report from the MCS Charitable Foundation states that Emmanuel Macron’s government introduced financial incentives in 2019 that almost doubled the number of air-to-water heat pump installations within a year, building on previous incentive schemes.

Government measures in France led to the creation of more than 30,000 full-time jobs in the heat pump industry in 2019, rising from 100,000 sales in 2010 to more than 600,000 sales in 2022.

By contrast, in the UK in 2019 there were only 2,000 jobs supported by the heat pump industry, and only one tenth the number of heat pump installations in France.

The UK needs an ‘exponential’ increase in the heat pump market to catch up with France, but it could create as many as 50,000 new jobs and cut energy bills and carbon, according to the MCS Charitable Foundation.

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

David Cowdrey, director of external affairs at the MCS Charitable Foundation, said: ‘Heat pumps are an extremely efficient technology for reducing carbon and bills, but the UK has not so far taken advantage of their potential. While other countries such as France lead the way, the race is on for the UK to go one step further.

“The government’s boiler upgrade scheme and the zero VAT rate on heat pumps have contributed to the UK installing more and more installations.

“But we need a much broader set of policies to meet the government’s targets, including making solar and heat pumps mandatory for all new homes, to help create the tens of thousands of jobs we know a thriving heat pump market can support.” .’

> What you need to know about purchasing a heat pump

David Cowdrey, director of external affairs at the MCS Charitable Foundation, said: ‘Heat pumps are an extremely efficient technology for reducing carbon and bills, but the UK has not so far capitalized on their potential

Charlotte Lee, CEO of the Heat Pump Association said: ‘The French heat pump market is ten times the size of the UK.

This report convincingly demonstrates that this is due to clear and decisive policies from the French government in exactly the same areas that the UK heat pump industry has been advocating for years.

Strict standards for new construction, subsidies that make consumers’ choice for heat pumps attractive, low electricity prices, the build-up of the number of installers and the phasing out of fossil fuel boilers have contributed significantly to France’s success.

There is still time to meet the UK Government’s target of 600,000 heat pumps installed per year by 2028, but that will require similar swift and decisive action as in France – implementation of the Future Homes and Buildings Standards by 2025, adoption of clear dates for stopping sales of new fossil fuel boilers, reducing electricity prices and improving installer training and standards across the heating industry.’.