Landlords: Boiler Ban in 2035

Landlords, as well as owner occupiers, are entitled to the £5,000 grants which will become available from April next year; initially this is aimed at driving up the volume of heat pumps being manufactured and fitted, aiming to reduce their costs which are estimated at up to £16,000 each.

But ARLA Propertymark has blasted the government over its net zero policy of banning new boilers from 2035 and giving landlords £5,000 to pay for alternatives.
Timothy Douglas, policy manager at Propertymark, says: "The government’s long-awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy has missed a vital opportunity to provide landlords, homeowners and businesses with adequate incentives and financial support to ensure that their decarbonisation targets for the property sector will be met.

Surely this target is optimistic! Recent concerns from the public have been raised; will the Manufacturers be able to cater that many households in such a short period of time? Do we have enough skilled tradesmen to install this many households? Also has the heat pump been used enough to confirm it’s the correct long term goal without having to change the goal posts or have more financial burden to rectify later down the line?

“The current issues facing the retrofit market – the lack of accredited installers, patchy nationwide provision of green measures and the skills gap – are rooted in an uncertainty around the market’s longevity born out of the grant-driven boom-bust past history.

“Without also instigating a long-term driver of demand, the progress made through this boiler upgrade scheme will collapse again when the three years are up. We mustn’t repeat the experience of the past insulation and photo voltaic programmes which didn’t produce a lasting legacy of delivery capability and where home retrofit has returned to a niche activity.”
Adams’ group, which advocates a stamp duty incentive for landlords and owners to retrofit energy efficient devices, has recently claimed that research shows only one in six people are planning to improve the energy efficiency of their home over the next five years.

Tristan Lee

Lettings Managing Partner