A £7,500 grant for a major home upgrade is to be made available to thousands of households across the UK. While some massive changes have been made to net-zero promises and pledges, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has expanded the boiler upgrade scheme
He made the announcement in his speech on Wednesday, reports BirminghamLive. He revealed that the grant for replacing gas boilers with heat pumps will increase to £7,500.
"The boiler upgrade scheme which gives people cash grants to upgrade their boiler will be increased by 50 per cent to £7,500." The PM said before adding: "There are no strings attached. The money will never need to be repaid."
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The announcement came after an expected ban on gas boilers in 2035 was postponed. In a piece in The Sun on today (September 21), Mr Sunak said: "Hard-pressed families shouldn't have to pay an unaffordable price to reach net zero.
"That's my guiding principle when it comes to tackling climate change." But, during BBC Radio 4's programme, Sir Alok Sharma, who was the president of the Cop26 climate summit, said: "I think it'd be incredibly damaging for business confidence, for inward investment, if the political consensus that we have forged in our country on the environment and climate action is fractured.
"And, frankly, I really do not believe that it's going to help any political party electorally which chooses to go down this path." Prominent Tory environmentalist Lord Zac Goldsmith went as far as to demand a general election over the "economically and ecologically illiterate decision".
The Labour party has also hit out with Labour's shadow net zero secretary Ed Miliband saying: "This is a complete farce from a Tory government that literally does not know what they are doing day to day." He added that Labour would provide a date for when gas boilers should be phased out if it gets elected.
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