UK To Ban Gas Hobs And Boilers From New Homes Within Six Years To Meet Carbon missions Targets

Gas hobs and boilers could be banned from new homes by 2025 to meet carbon emissions targets. The proposals, from the Committee on Climate Change, said newly-built properties should rely on low-carbon heating and cooking equipment such as induction hobs

Gas hobs and boilers could be banned from new homes within six years to meet carbon emissions targets.

Property developers would not be allowed to connect new-builds to the gas grid after 2025, official guidance says.

The proposals, unveiled today, would put an end to new gas radiators, boilers and cooking hobs.

Instead, the Committee on Climate Change said newly-built properties should rely on low-carbon heating and cooking equipment such as induction hobs.


The Home Builders Federation said the proposed ban would make new-builds a harder sell, as gas boilers are often cheaper and preferred by buyers.

Fitting a low-carbon heating system, such as an air source heat pump, could add £5,000 to the cost of a new-build, The Times reported. The committee admitted that high-tech low-carbon heaters can take longer to warm a room than traditional boilers.

A ban ‘by 2025 at the latest’ was deemed necessary to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases caused by household energy use.

Households currently use 14 per cent of the UK’s energy total. A spokesman for the Home Builders Federation said: ‘Builders need to sell homes so alternative energy sources have to be attractive to consumers.

‘It must be ensured that alternatives are suitably attractive, available and efficient before withdrawing existing options.’

+2

But the Home Builders Federation said the proposed ban would make new-builds a harder sell, as gas boilers are often cheaper and preferred by buyers

Committee chief Chris Stark told the newspaper that heat pumps, which pull in heat from outside air, could be cost-effective for new-builds from 2021. 

Mr Stark, who has a gas boiler in his Glasgow flat, said: ‘A gas boiler is one of the things I would very much like to not have, but my home is one of the more difficult ones to convert. That doesn’t mean I’m not keen to do it.’

Fitting air pumps in newly-built homes is five times cheaper than retrofitting the devices in homes that already have gas heating.

Homes in the UK will have to reduce emissions to zero by 2050 to meet climate change targets.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will ‘carefully consider the recommendations,’ a spokesman said.

It comes after Environment Secretary Michael Gove pledged to crack down on wood-burning stoves in his clean air strategy.

The UK must slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2050 under the Climate Change Act 2008.