Boiler Scrappage Scheme

The boiler scrappage scheme has been announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling.  This important energy efficiency initiative has resulted in a boiler scrappage scheme that will pay people £400 to replace their old boilers with new, more energy efficient ones.

The Chancellor stated that “Each inefficient boiler adds over £200 to household bills and one tonne of carbon to the atmosphere,” . It can therefore be seen that the scheme will be good for the environment in addition to helping to save householders money on their heating bills each year.

From April 2010, some £200m would be added to help with energy efficiency to cut carbon emissions from homes and is part of a range of energy efficiency initiatives which include plans to create jobs in the “low-carbon sector” and to encourage electric motoring.

“Tackling climate change will bring new opportunities for new low-carbon industries,” Mr Darling said, insisting that investment to create “high-skilled, high-paid jobs” in this area would be “crucial to our future prosperity”.

The main thrust of these initiatives and the boiler scrappage scheme is  to develop Energy efficient homes across the nation.

Investment in a low-emissions future for the UK would thus be split between new technology investments and improvements to existing homes. Mr Darling stated “As well as investing in clean and low-carbon technologies, we must become more energy efficient, to cut emissions as well as household bills,a quarter of all the country’s emissions come from households.”

The boiler scrappage scheme he introduced will “help up to 125,000 homes replace the most inefficient boilers with new models”.  The announcement has been warmly received by the energy industry and Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, commented that “this is a welcome step towards replacing Britain’s four million old, inefficient boilers”.

Additional media comment included the consultancy Deloitte who observed  “home owners and the environment [would] benefit greatly from the scheme”. “Domestic heating in the UK is a significant source of emissions, with boilers accounting for approximately 60% of these emissions.”

There are bonuses for househoilds who make rapid strides towards energy efficiency and home enegry generation. “From April, people with a home wind turbine or solar panels who plug their excess power into the national grid will receive on average £900 a year,” Mr Darling said. “I intend to make this tax free.”

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