Despite throwing money at the problem, people still aren’t buying heat pumps F

Heat pump sales have not yet reached 100,000 units a year, and as a result of delay after delay to the Future Homes Standard, fossil fuel boilers will continue to be installed in new build homes until 2025.7 Part of the lag has been attributed to the prolonged absence of a comprehensive strategy for the decarbonisation of home heat.8 Until the Heat and Buildings Strategy was published, the UK effe. [...] Changes made included cancelling plans for higher minimum energy efficiency requirements in the private rented sector and pushing back the ban on new fossil fuel boilers in off-grid homes from 2026 to 2035.10 The broader rhetoric around the decarbonisation of home heat has itself become a roadblock to the uptake of green products. [...] While there may be lessons for the UK here in how to mobilise capability and opportunity, the interventions used in Finland to motivate heat pump purchases cannot simply be adopted and replicated by the UK and expected to work. [...] However, insulation itself is also a high-value, high-commitment green purchase, and as our work shows, insulation generates its own set of barriers to uptake – most prominently, an absence of trust in the industry.12 Improving the fabric and fit of one’s home may be a stepping stone to installing a heat pump in future for consumers, but it could also be used by government as a ladder to build tru. [...] However, this is unlikely to be achieved without sufficient pressure on policymakers to bring the decarbonisation of home heat to the top of their agendas.