Clean Heat Market Mechanism ‘to be delayed until 2025’
The government has announced plans to delay the introduction of the Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM) to 1 April 2025, allowing more time for industry to prepare.
The CHMM will introduce a rising market standard for heat pumps as a proportion of fossil fuel boiler sales, placing an obligation on boiler manufacturers to meet targets on their sales of heat pumps relative to their sales of gas and oil boilers, or face financial penalties.
Originally due to be introduced on 1 April 2024, the Department for Energy & Net Zero (DESNZ) has now indicated it will delay the introduction by one year.
In a statement, DESNZ said it wanted to allow industry more time to prepare their businesses for the change, and for more consumers to take up heat pumps, before the scheme is introduced.
The planned target levels for 2025/2026 (set at 6 per cent of relevant boiler sales), and all other aspects of the scheme’s design and implementation, will remain as previously set out. Targets for future years will be subject to consultation.
The government says it remains “fully focussed on supporting the development of a heat pump market of 600,000 installations per year by 2028, ensuring that heat pumps become a mainstream consumer solution alongside gas boilers, of which approximately 1.8 million are currently installed each year”.
Stewart Clements, Director of the HHIC, says: “We welcome today’s news. The heating industry remains dedicated to reaching net zero, and we will continue to engage with the government to drive decarbonisation and support their relevant targets while also protecting consumers.
“Moving forward, an all-technological approach to decarbonisation will undoubtedly help the nation’s efforts. Heat pumps will have a role to play in the decarbonisation of heat, alongside other technologies such as heat networks, hybrid systems and hydrogen, and it’s important that we support customers in understanding the most suitable efficient upgrade available to them and their home.”
You can read the full government statement here.
