Labour’s biggest individual donor, green tycoon Dale Vince, has urged the Government to scrap its flagship heat pump subsidy scheme and instead invest billions of pounds in rooftop solar panels to cut energy bills.
The Ecotricity founder said the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) should instead be used to “solarise a million rooftops”, to save families “£500 off their energy bills” and still “generate an 8 per cent return” for the public purse.
The scheme has around £2.7bn of funding through to 2029-30 and provides grants of £7,500 for most air-to-water source and ground-source heat pumps, while air-to-air heat pumps attract a £2,500 grant.
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In an interview with The i Paper, Vince said the scheme was poor value for money, arguing that heat pumps offered “no return ever” and provided no economic benefit.
