Policy, market, and skills gap barriers to heat pump deployment in the UK

UK domestic heat decarbonisation is undergoing rapid policy change. Poor efficiency performance improvements in domestic hot water and space heating compared to the electricity sector are a key barrier to achieving national net zero policy targets. This paper outlines the key issues raised in domestic space heating and hot water decarbonisation in the UK, with a specific focus on the uptake of air and ground-source heat pumps – a major component of government strategy for future homes. The key policy, market, and skills barriers to the rapid uptake of heat pumps are assessed, including issues of retrofitting older housing stock, encouraging market uptake of subsidised technologies, and retraining fossil-fuel intensive hot water and heating systems professionals to encourage consumer confidence. The key policy recommendations from this analysis are to reframe heat policy through a more holistic approach to both “supply push” and “demand pull” in the heat pump market – not only ensuring new building standards, but improving funding for skills, quality control and compliance in the sector to reduce costs, speed up market growth, improve consumer confidence and ensure a “just transition” in the heating sector.