GAS BOILERS AND COOKERS WILL BE BANNED FROM NEW HOMES FROM 2025 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The new future homes standard will ban fossil fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025, the chancellor said today. Read more: Spring Statement: UK slashes 2019 growth forecast The measure will help homes reach “world-leading levels of energy efficiency,” the Treasury said, while it future proofs newly built homes with low carbon heating. “We will introduce a future homes standard mandating the end of fossil fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025, delivering lower carbon and lower fuel bills too,” chancellor Philip Hammond told parliament. It comes on the back of the Prime Minister’s industrial strategy which sets out to halve energy use in new buildings by 2030. Maria Connolly, partner at law firm TLT which specialises in clean energy, said the chancellor’s plan “looks to be a good proposal”. “But we should also be looking at how we can better incentivise new housing developments to incorporate clean energy technologies such as solar photovoltaic or wind turbines, combined with storage capacity,” she added. Meanwhile boiler installer Hometree’s chief executive Simon Phelan said it was important to ensure customers do not end up paying more. The chancellor also revealed plans to increase the amount of so-called green gas in the grid in a bid to reduce Britain’s reliance on natural gas. Around 0.5 per cent of gas in the UK’s grid currently comes from green sources, such as biomethane, said Jesse Scharf at the Green Gas Certification Scheme. Read more: Hammond calls for CMA probe into digital advertising market “We’re very pleased to see this get some attention at a high level, it is a big challenge to green the gas grid, it needs investment and political will,” Scharf told City A.M. James Court from the Renewable Energy Association said: “The chancellor was right to state that accelerating the decarbonisation of the gas grid is necessary if climate targets are to be met. Although no definite proposals were outlined, the acknowledgement of the need to green the gas network is a promising start as this offers a low-cost way of utilising existing infrastructure to decarbonise.”