BORIS Johnson's plan to give out £5,000 grants to improve domestic energy efficiency have failed to find a warm reception in Wales.

The prime minister has announced new targets for all new heating system installations to be low-carbon by 2035, and has promised a £450million, three-year government fund to help people switch from a boiler to a more economic heat pump.

But experts and environmental groups warned the money would only pay for 30,000 heat pumps a year – a fraction of what is needed to meet UK Government targets – and Wales' deputy climate change minister said today the fund would only "cover 0.3 per cent of Welsh homes".

The £5,000 grants will be available for households in Wales and England from next April, and will mean people installing a heat pump will pay a similar amount to the installation of traditional gas boilers, according to the prime minister's plans.

Heat pumps currently cost an average £10,000 to install and do not necessarily deliver savings on running costs – despite being much more efficient than gas boilers, because green levies are higher on electricity than on gas. The scheme will form part of the UK Government's wider plans for achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

Industry expert Jan Rosenow, from the Regulatory Assistance Project, said it was "essential" government helped fund the costs of heat pumps "but the level of funding is too low".

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And beyond concerns over the size of the funding pot, the prime minister's plan has been criticised here in Wales over a lack of communication from Westminster.

The Welsh Government is "disappointed and frustrated" with the way the scheme was announced, a spokesman told the Argus today, and this afternoon economy minister Vaughan Gething told a press conference the first he had heard of the scheme was when the UK Government issued a press release.

Mr Waters, meanwhile, said on Twitter that "despite [the UK Government] telling us all summer they’d share their NetZero plan with us [...] They didn’t".

Wales' own Net Zero emissions reduction plan for the next five year will be published on October 28, climate change miniser Julie James has already announced.

"We are disappointed and frustrated to not have been more meaningfully involved in the development of the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy and associated documents, which will have an impact across Wales," the Welsh Government spokesman said.

"We will not make comment until we have had a chance to read and understand what it means for us. A statement will follow in due course."

South Wales Argus: UK Government ministers like Kwasi Kwarteng say the new heat pump scheme will help UK homes become more energy efficient. Pictures: PA Wire/Octopus Energy (right)UK Government ministers like Kwasi Kwarteng say the new heat pump scheme will help UK homes become more energy efficient. Pictures: PA Wire/Octopus Energy (right)

The situation is complicated by a grey area when it comes to devolution and responsibility for policies like the heat pump scheme. While housing is devolved to Wales, heating is generally (but not wholly) reserved to Westminster – although the Welsh Government challenges this position.

Welsh ministers took part in a consultation last year with the UK Government, and the Argus understands the Welsh position was broadly supportive of a joint scheme, as long as it would work alongside the so-called 'whole house approach' to domestic energy efficiency that is promoted in the Senedd.

This involves looking at a range of measures to stop heat and energy waste, such as insulation. If a home isn't properly insulated, for example, then simply switching from a boiler to a heat pump would have little effect on the amount of heat lost in that property.

But UK Government ministers argue the new scheme will "kickstart demand", as energy minister Greg Hands said, and help "incentivise the take-up to a greener choice" for families who need new boilers.

And UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that by investing in heat pumps now, Wales and England would benefit from extra protection against future bumps in fossil fuel prices.

"Recent volatile global gas prices have highlighted the need to double down on our efforts to reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels and move away from gas boilers over the coming decade to protect consumers in long term," he said.

"As the technology improves and costs plummet over the next decade, we expect low carbon heating systems will become the obvious, affordable choice for consumers."

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