Under Mr Miliband’s plans, households with heat pumps will receive roughly £150 a year off their energy bills, funded though a levy on gas bills.
Ed Miliband wants to spend billions on subsidising heat pumps. (Image: Getty)
Ed Miliband has been dealt yet another humiliating blow as Labour’s biggest renewable energy donor slammed his heat pump scheme as a “massive mistake and waste of money”. Dale Vince, green energy industrialist and owner of the electricity company Ecotricity, has donated more than £6.3 million to the Labour Party. However, he’s been a vocal critic the energy secretary’s plan to spend billions on subsidising heat pumps to move Brits away from gas boilers.
Mr Vince called the idea an “absurd use of public money” and questioned why handouts were being given to those who may not need them. He said: “I don’t understand the obsession. You’re probably in energy poverty or in low income, the last thing you need is something that’s really expensive to run and makes your house colder. Why are we giving subsidies for people who are relatively well off?
“Meanwhile, we maintain the two child benefit cap for people who can’t feed themselves. Why are we giving subsidies for people who are relatively well off?
“There is no need to mess about with heat pumps. There’s five million in food poverty and we give thousands of pounds to people for something that’s not an essential. It’s a very middle class subsidy.”
Under Mr Miliband’s plans, households with heat pumps will receive roughly £150 a year off their energy bills, funded though a levy on gas bills.
Installing a heat pump costs £13,200 on average, so Mr Vince argues that people who can afford them don’t need money off their energy bills.
The Government already has a £7,500 up-front subsidy towards the cost of upgrading from a gas boiler to a heat pump, which has been in place since 2022 and is set to be extended until 2030.
Also on offer until 2030 is an option for lower-income households to have the remaining £5,000 paid for by the Government.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “This is speculation.
“We are exploring a range of options for rebalancing gas and electricity prices — securing better outcomes for consumers is at the heart of our approach, and we will set out further details in due course. No decisions have been made.”
