The Telegraph reports that more than two-thirds of people living in off-grid rural homes fear they would not be able to afford a heat pump if required to install one, according to a new survey commissioned by Liquid Gas UK, which represents domestic heating fuel suppliers.

Nearly 70 per cent of households said they would not be able to afford £15,000-30,000 to install a heat pump if their boiler breaks down after 2026, when the Government plans to ban new boiler installations in off-grid homes, the data show. There are around four million homes in the UK that use heating oil or liquid gas, almost all of them in rural areas. Fuel poverty rates among these households are 43 per cent higher than on-grid homes, affecting half a million households, and nearly half of residents are over-65.

Rural off-grid homes have faced soaring energy costs as the price of oil and liquid gas has risen in recent months, and were originally left out of the Government’s bills support scheme. Nearly 60 per cent of off-grid households think the 2026 new gas boiler ban, which is nine years earlier than that proposed for homes on the grid, is unfair and should be scrapped.

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “Rural households must not be left out in the cold and the Government must make good on its plans to provide support to households to upgrade their homes so that they are well insulated, energy efficient and with heating systems which will last into the future.”

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The Telegraph - Most rural homes can’t afford heat pumps as boiler ban looms