HOUSEHOLDS in west Wales living off the gas grid could face a huge heating bill shock.

Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), a leading energy trade body, says that 13,000 households in Pembrokeshire and 20,000 in Carmarthenshire currently use an oil boiler to heat their home.

The UK Government is banning oil and LPG boilers from 2026. From that time, if the oil boiler breaks down, the government plans to ban the replacement of the boiler, wanting homes to fit a heat pump instead that runs on electricity.

EUA says the current cost of replacing the boiler comes in at under £3,000, whereas, fitting a heat pump will cost £13,000 according to the government’s own data.

The EUA also says the annual running cost of a heat pump is £360 a year more than using an oil boiler, however, that gap could rocket to £1,700 a year without the government’s price cap on electricity.

The government under Boris Johnson made the announcement of the plan to ban oil and LPG boilers from 2026 as part of their green plan, which they hope to have 600,000 heat pumps a year fitted by 2028.

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Mike Foster, EUA’s chief executive, said: “This news will shock most families. Already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, they now face being the easy prey to pay eye-watering costs. I genuinely do not believe families in west Wales can afford either the upfront costs of buying a heat pump nor the higher annual bills.

“It seems that families living in rural neighbourhoods, not connected to the gas grid, are easy prey to force heat pumps onto. Homes on the gas grid will not face the same boiler ban until 2035 but it is expected that hydrogen boilers will be commonplace by then, allowing boilers to stay in place.

“Heat pumps are a way of reducing carbon emissions, but this comes at a price, currently a hefty one. Now is not the time to ban oil and LPG boilers. At the very least, treating rural households the same as their on gas grid counterparts is fair.

“Delaying the oil boiler ban until 2035 allows for alternatives such as bio-fuels to become established, allowing a low carbon boiler to stay in the home, or to see if the cost of heat pumps fall. Rural families should not be the guinea pigs for the government’s heat pump experiment.”

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