We don’t normally get profanity in our survey responses, but some people didn’t hold back when we asked for views on heat pumps to inform our policy positioning.

“F*** off, I will never have a heat pump, I’ll stick with my multi-fuel burner,” was one such response.

This feedback to a recent UK Finance/YouGov survey was front of mind as the Climate Change Committee (CCC) released its proposals for the UK’s Seventh Carbon Budget in February – the target for greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2042.

Based on an assessment of what is needed to achieve the UK Government’s legal Net Zero targets, the CCC’s proposal sets out challenging expectations for clean technology roll-out, including half of homes using heat pumps by 2040 – equivalent to annual installations of 450,000 by 2030 and 1.5mn by 2035.

But misinformation about the quality of heat pumps is rife. Our survey, undertaken with YouGov in December, shows that only 13% of those that don’t currently have one would get a heat pump if their boiler needed replacing in the next 12 months. Respondents said that they believe heat pumps are “unreliable”; that heat pumps are “another con”; that they “believe the technology will improve significantly over the next few years” and “would wait until it does”.

But the evidence of actual performance indicates that these misgivings are largely wrong. A survey by Nesta in 2023 revealed that UK heat pump users were “highly satisfied with their heat pumps, considering them to be safe, reliable, quiet heat sources that are effective for space heating and producing hot water” – and that satisfaction rates are broadly in line with those for gas boilers. Many owners have become evangelists, promoting them through the visit a heat pump scheme.

The contention that heat pumps don’t work in colder climates has long been proven false by massive uptake in Nordic countries.

There is a “campaign of misinformation” supported by “vested interests” against heat pumps, former Conservative energy minister Lord Callanan said last year. The financial services sector, which is committed to supporting UK homes to decarbonise, has its own interest in countering those narratives.

Scaling demand for low-carbon home retrofit measures, whether heat pumps or improving insulation, will require a concerted effort to tackle misinformation and help homeowners find the right solution for them. That is why – as the CCC’s recommendations are rolled out – UK Finance continues to advocate for a government-run, trusted retrofit advisory service to help consumers get objective information to have more comfortable, lower-emission home heating. 

Paying for retrofit

Critical media responses to the CCC’s proposals focused on the large costs of retrofit, including up-front heat pump costs.

The sums needed for widespread retrofit are large. In our 2022 report, Net Zero Homes: Time for a Reset, we estimated that the costs to bring the energy performance of UK homes to their best low-carbon potential would be £300bn. Upfront costs are the main barrier to households undertaking retrofit. Santander’s April 2024 Tomorrow’s Homes report found that 73% of UK adults felt they couldn’t afford to install a heat pump. 

But it’s not fair to suggest that homeowners will need to pay for all of these costs out of their own pockets, or that the taxpayer will have to foot the bill. 

Financial services firms, and lenders in particular, are well placed to support – and many already offer products to enable customers to retrofit their homes. Demand for these products is low because so few people are implementing the upgrades. 

When framed within the terms of the Government’s growth agenda, this is an enormous opportunity. Scaling up demand for home retrofit across the UK's 30 million homes could create new markets for financial services firms to support greener properties, with enormous job-creating potential as builders, qualified installers, insulators and engineers across the country step up. 

The next step for Government is to develop and implement a clear strategy, bringing together public communications, advice, targeted grants and skills development, so that demand and supply rise in tandem. We will be looking for this in the upcoming Warm Homes Plan. 

Methodology: 

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 4232 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 12th - 13th December 2024.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).