If we are to transition away from gas boilers, we need a national skills academy for heat pump installers

As part of the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, it has set itself a target to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028. While we fully support the government’s aspirations, we are somewhat in the dark as to how this ambitious target will be realised.

According to the Heat Pump Association, there are currently only 900 heat pump installers in the UK. Building Skills for Net Zero, a recent report by the Construction Industry Training Board, says that to meet the 600,000 figure, a monumental rise in the number of installers will be needed.

It forecasts that between now and 2025, a “rapid increase” in training will be required, of around 7,500 installers per year. That figure will need to be doubled by 2025 and maintained through to 2030. In short, around 60,000 installers will be required to satisfy potential demand.

The task is further complicated by the level of expertise needed to install alternative heat-source technologies. It’s not a case of asking heating engineers, familiar only with fitting conventional gas boilers, to switch to installing ground- or air-source heat pumps.

Heat pump installers are highly experienced in low-carbon technologies, versed in heat-loss calculations, hydraulic balancing, flow temperature calculations and heating system sizing.

To achieve such a target, significant investment will be needed for specialised training.

There are a range of medium-sized training providers out there at present. But given the need for economy of scale, it seems the sensible approach would be to create a national skills academy.

Regulated by Ofqual, it would deliver enough installers to meet the levels required, ensure that the quality of heat pump installations was high and consistent, and it would help promote much-needed general awareness of the benefits such technology can bring.

A national skills academy would be an attractive proposition for key stakeholders like energy providers that need to retrain and upskill thousands of engineers, as well as housing associations that need to make a major transition to alternative heat sources to meet their own and government targets.

Fundamentally, an academy could be the foundation that allows long-term partnerships to be built between energy providers, housing associations and other stakeholders to achieve their plans and targets.

For example, to help achieve our net-zero targets, Home Group needs to transition from gas to alternative forms of heat sources. We currently have around 40,000 gas boilers in our homes.

The other 100+ housing associations out there are, to a greater or lesser degree, facing a similar challenge. That equates to a significant number.

And numbers are exactly what energy providers need in order for them to make such a massive operational and workforce transition viable. They need a market to open up. With around four million social homes, housing associations alone offer a great incentive.

But for housing associations to commit to that investment and those numbers, we need that market to be a lot different from what it looks like today. We need a dramatic improvement, and investment, in the product. With the greatest respect for what’s out there at the moment, we need to see widespread improvement in the design, quality, effectiveness and reliability of heat pumps.

Currently there’s not enough of a competitive dynamic, and nowhere near enough research and development being undertaken, because there isn’t enough critical mass in the sector. As a result, we have a product that isn’t always consumer friendly, nor likely to stand the test of time.

A commitment by housing associations, and others, would change all that. I’d expect to see more manufacturers enter the fray with the nous to see the market potential and the resources to deliver a product at competitive prices that would satisfy the needs and pockets of consumers, while making inroads into everyone’s net-zero targets.

In this situation, it would be quite easy to conceive a scenario where a housing association partners up with an energy provider and home care provider to successfully make the transition from gas to other forms of heating. But not just a short-term partnership, one that extends to 15 years or even longer, meaning the transition will be collaborative, better planned out and easier to deliver.

For the first five years, say, that housing association is likely to want to maintain its gas boilers, or replace like for like. After that it will want to work with the energy provider and home care provider to transition to the heating source and technology of its choice.

It’s a scenario which could be extended to work within a framework like the Greener Futures Partnership. Set up by Home Group, Abri, Anchor Hanover Group, the Hyde Group and Sanctuary Group, it is based on shared ambitions to lower emissions, reduce fuel poverty and improve living conditions for residents by creating sustainable, affordable, healthier and safer homes.

A wider partnership like this brings even greater benefits for housing associations, not least increased procurement muscle, which would be hugely beneficial when gas boilers, parts and labour become more expensive as this sector tails off.

Partnering up with energy providers collectively, or individually, would make the transformation process easier and effective for everyone.

Housing associations would have a clear say on how and when they make the transition, and to what source and quality of product, while energy providers would be happy to service that transition if given clear market opportunities.

Crucial to this scenario is a skilled workforce, appropriately regulated, delivering a high-quality, consistent and reliable service. The myriad training providers currently dotted around the country can’t provide this, and they certainly don’t have the capacity to deliver 60,000 installers by 2030.

A national skills academy has the ability to deliver all of the above. I would expect to see such a proposition within the government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy. If it isn’t, then it has to be debated as a stand-alone item.

If it is realised and properly funded, then the commentators who have balked at the government’s target to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 may have to readjust their position – including those getting their microscopes out in readiness for COP26.

Mark Henderson, chief executive, Home Group