The Government response to the Public Accounts Committee's Thirty-seventh report on decarbonising home heating was published on 11 July 2025 as Treasury minutes1. The response takes the form of Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-seventh report from Session 2023-24, published under HC 6531.
The Committee's report itself was published on 26 May 2024, also under HC 6531. The inquiry behind it was closed because of the 2024 General Election, and the deadline for written evidence submissions was 11:59pm on 10 April 20241. The Committee took oral evidence from officials at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 24 April 2024, published on 25 April 20241. Written evidence published during the inquiry included submissions from Good Energy and the Ground Source Heat Pump Association, both published on 29 April 2024, and from Andrew Warren, chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, published on 8 May 20241. Correspondence from Richard Warren, director of public affairs at The Kensa Group, dated 1 May 2024, was published on 8 May 20241.
The inquiry's scope was set out by the Committee. Home heating made up 18% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 20211. The Government's Heat and Buildings Strategy, published in October 2021, has the ambition to end the installation of new fossil fuel boilers by 20351. It commits to growing the supply chain for heat pumps to a minimum market capacity of 600,000 installations per year by 2028, an eleven-fold increase from 55,000 heat pump sales in 20221. It also set 2026 as the year by which evidence would be developed to inform decisions on the future role of hydrogen in home heating1.
The Committee said the National Audit Office's March 2024 report on progress in decarbonising home heating found that trials of hydrogen schemes intended to support government decision-making are either delayed or cancelled1. It also found that the Government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme has achieved a lower than expected uptake, with expectations for the increase in heat pump installations by 2028 based on optimistic assumptions1. The Committee added that its own reports on the Renewable Heat Incentive (2018) and the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme (2021) found that both schemes underperformed, provided poor value for money, and were also based on over-optimistic promises1.
"This inquiry was closed due to the 2024 General Election."
The content of the Treasury minutes published on 11 July 2025 is not set out in the publications listing, and the Government's specific replies to the Committee's recommendations have not been reported there1.
Why it matters for households
The measures under scrutiny are the ones that determine how a home is heated and what it costs to change that. The 2035 ambition to end the installation of new fossil fuel boilers, the 600,000-a-year heat pump installation target for 2028 and the 2026 decision point on hydrogen all shape what equipment is available, what support exists and when a household might face a change in its options1. The Committee's account of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's lower than expected uptake, and of the NAO's finding that the 2028 installation expectations rest on optimistic assumptions, bears directly on whether grant-funded routes to a heat pump have worked in practice1. The Committee's earlier findings on the Renewable Heat Incentive and the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, that both underperformed and provided poor value for money, are the track record against which any successor scheme is judged1. For a household weighing its own energy independence, the practical question is whether the supply chain, the grant funding and the hydrogen decision arrive in the order and at the pace the strategy sets out. The Government's answers to those points are in the Treasury minutes, whose contents are not detailed in the publications record1. The wider framework is set out in the site's guide to UK home energy regulation and policy.
What happens next
The Government response was published on 11 July 20251. No further steps are set out in the publications listing1.
Sources1 cited
- Decarbonising home heating - Committees - UK Parliament, committees.parliament.uk