Darling announces boiler scrappage scheme

Thursday 10th December 2009

A new boiler scrappage scheme has been announced by Alistair Darling in his pre-Budget report.

The scheme will help 125,000 families replace their old boilers with newer, more efficient models.

The scheme, similar to the car trade-in scheme, was one of a series of green measures announced in the report and is hoped to reduce domestic heating and hot water bills and cut greenhouse gases.

In his speech the chancellor said: "Each inefficient boiler adds over £200 to household bills and one tonne of carbon to the atmosphere. A quarter of all the country's emissions come from households."

The scheme will see about £200 million added to help cut carbon emissions from homes from April 2010.

Mick Williams, of Williams and Co, a plumber's merchant in Hampshire, who started a petition for the scheme, told inthenews.co.uk: "All in all it's very pleasing. It's much better than the car scrappage scheme for the environment, small businesses should benefit and house holders will save about £250 a year. So it's a win, win, win situation."

He did though add that he was yet to see the details of the scheme and stressed the importance of the involvement of small business.

The scheme will be open to households with what are known as G-rated boilers, which are graded as 70 per cent efficient, so long as they replace them with A-rated boilers.

It is also expected to give a boost to British industry, as about 60 per cent of boilers used in the UK are manufactured here. About 120,000 boiler engineers also look set to benefit from increased business.

Some though feel that the pre-Budget report did not go far enough in terms of the environment.

John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, said: "Alistair Darling peppered his speech with references to a low carbon economy, but failed to announce the scale of change that would actually give us one. A bold chancellor would have scrapped Trident, saved £100 billion and used the cash to create a green investment bank.

Related News

<< Back To News Listings

News Article Search