Households will be able to apply for £5,000 grant to replace gas boilers as new scheme unveiled

Published

4 years ago

October 18, 2021

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Households will be able to apply for a £5,000 grant to swap their gas boiler for a low-carbon heat pump, as part of government plans to cut emissions.

The government announced that the £450m Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which is part of the more than £3.9bn funding to cut carbon from heating and buildings, will be used to help it reach its target for all new heating system installations to be low carbon by 2035.

However, the government insisted families will not be forced to remove their existing fossil fuel boilers.

Ministers said that switching to low carbon heating will cut emissions and reduce the UK’s dependency on fossil fuels, as well as its exposure to global price spikes in gas. It will also support up to 240,000 jobs across the country by 2035, they added.

The scheme will encourage people to install low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps, which run on electricity and extract energy from the air or ground.

The £3.9bn funding will be used to cut carbon from heating and buildings, including by making social housing more energy efficient and cosier, as well as reducing emissions from public buildings, over the next three years.

The £5,000 grants will be available from April and will mean people installing a heat pump will pay a similar amount to those installing traditional gas boilers, according to the plans.

The grants for heat pumps will be available for households in England and Wales, as part of the UK-wide heat and buildings strategy.

Heat pumps currently cost an average £10,000 to install and do not necessarily deliver savings on running costs despite being much more efficient than gas, because green levies are higher on electricity than on gas.

The government said its plans would help people install low-carbon heating systems in a simple, fair and cheap way as they replace their old boilers over the next decade.

It said it would work with industry to make heat pumps the same cost to buy and run as fossil fuel units by 2030.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “As we clean up the way we heat our homes over the next decade, we are backing our brilliant innovators to make clean technology like heat pumps as cheap to buy and run as gas boilers – supporting thousands of green jobs.

“Our new grants will help homeowners make the switch sooner, without costing them extra, so that going green is the better choice when their boiler needs an upgrade.”

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng added: “Recent volatile global gas prices have highlighted the need to double down on our efforts to reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels and move away from gas boilers over the coming decade to protect consumers in long term.

“As the technology improves and costs plummet over the next decade, we expect low carbon heating systems will become the obvious, affordable choice for consumers.”

Greg Jackson, chief executive and founder of Octopus Energy, said that when the grant scheme launches, his company will install heat pumps at about the same cost as gas boilers.

“Electric heat pumps are more efficient, safer and cleaner than gas boilers and can help make homes more comfortable with less energy,” he said.

“Today we’ve crossed a massive milestone in our fight against climate change and to reduce Britain’s reliance on expensive, dirty gas.”

Labour’s shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, said: “As millions of families face an energy and cost of living crisis, this is a meagre, unambitious and wholly inadequate response.

“Families up and down the country desperately needed Labour’s 10-year plan investing £6bn-a-year for home insulation and zero carbon heating to cut bills by £400 per-year, improve our energy security, create jobs and reduce carbon emissions.

“People can’t warm their homes with yet more of Boris Johnson’s hot air but that is all that is on offer.”

Analysis by Tom Clarke, science and technology editor

A fair, affordable and deliverable plan to wean Britain’s homes off fossil fuels is one of the toughest parts of the government’s net-zero plans.

Levies on energy bills have been a fairly straightforward way of subsidising clean forms of generating electricity – the method used to phase out coal power and replace it with offshore wind for example.

But how do you go about performing a similar trick in persuading the owners of 29 million gas boilers to switch to something else?

Especially when that something else costs 10 times more to buy, and would currently cost significantly more to run?

That’s the challenge of moving away from gas and towards electric-powered heat pumps. And one the Heat and Buildings Strategy has tried to address.

The plan has been delayed by more than a year; partly because of the amount of wrangling between energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Chancellor Rishi Sunak about how to make it work.

But the result, according to most experts I’ve spoken to, is not a bad start.

The plan has sufficient money to help homeowners purchase about 30,000 new air source heat pumps a year for three years.

Nowhere near enough to fix the climate crisis (we need more like 450,000 by 2025 according to the Committee on Climate Change), but it is seen by many as a good start.

It should help generate the economies of scale needed to drive down the costs of the devices to drive up demand.

The strategy also doesn’t ignore the basic physics of electric heat pumps compared to boilers.

Heat pumps are only affordable if they run at lower temperatures than gas boilers (50C vs 70C) and that means to warm a home with a heat pump you need a well-insulated, draft-free house.

The plan boosts funding for improving things like insulation in social housing and for those in fuel poverty.

Again, by nothing nearly enough to meet a net-zero target, but most experts say they couldn’t have expected much more given the current pressures on public spending.

But important details are missing. There’s little support at all for homeowners or private landlords to improve the homes’ energy efficiency.

And there’s not much evidence of support for local authorities who manage the bulk of social housing – much of which is in greatest need of improvement.

Another important, and much trailed element of the strategy is reform of electricity pricing to encourage homeowners to make the switch from gas to electric heat pumps.

Right now gas is significantly cheaper than electricity.

It was expected that the strategy would remove levies from electricity, to make things like heat pumps cheaper to run, and therefore more attractive.

Instead, the government has decided to consult on this with a decision next year.

Politics

IRS appoints Trish Turner to head crypto division amid resignations

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4 hours ago

May 6, 2025

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IRS appoints Trish Turner to head crypto division amid resignations

Veteran US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Trish Turner was appointed to lead the agency’s digital assets division following the departure of two key crypto-focused executives.

Turner, who has spent over 20 years at the IRS and most recently served as a senior adviser within the Digital Assets Office, will now head the unit, according to a report from Bloomberg Tax citing a person familiar with the situation.

Her promotion marks a significant leadership transition at a time when US crypto tax enforcement is facing both internal and external pressures.

On May 5, Sulolit “Raj” Mukherjee and Seth Wilks, two private-sector experts brought in to lead the IRS’s crypto unit, exited after roughly a year in their roles.

Mukherjee served as compliance and implementation executive director, while Wilks oversaw strategy and development. Wilks announced his departure on LinkedIn, while Mukherjee confirmed his decision in a statement to Bloomberg Tax.

“The reality is that federal employees have faced a very difficult environment over the past few months,” Wilks wrote. “If stepping aside helps preserve someone else’s job, then I am at peace with the decision.”

IRS ramps up crypto scrutiny

The IRS has ramped up its focus on cryptocurrency in recent years, increasing audits and criminal probes targeting digital asset transactions.

It also attempted to introduce broad crypto broker reporting requirements, which drew sharp criticism from industry stakeholders and was eventually overturned by President Donald Trump.

Set to take effect in 2027, the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule would have expanded the tax authority’s existing reporting requirements to include DeFi platforms, requiring them to disclose gross proceeds from crypto sales, including information regarding taxpayers involved in the transactions.

Turner’s leadership also comes during a shift in Washington’s approach to crypto regulation.

With the return of the Trump administration in January, federal agencies have scaled back regulations perceived as burdensome to digital asset innovation.

For instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped or paused over a dozen enforcement cases against crypto companies. Additionally, the Department of Justice has announced the dissolution of its cryptocurrency enforcement unit, signaling a softer approach to the sector.

Internally, the IRS is also navigating instability. Over 23,000 employees have reportedly expressed interest in resigning after Trump reintroduced a deferred resignation policy, raising concerns about long-term staffing and morale within the agency.

Magazine: Bitcoin to $1M ‘by 2029,’ CIA tips its hat to Bitcoin: Hodler’s Digest, April 27 – May 3

Politics

OKX exec warns against hype amid real-world asset tokenization boom

Published

5 hours ago

May 6, 2025

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OKX exec warns against hype amid real-world asset tokenization boom

The CEO of crypto exchange OKX’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division has called on the industry to prioritize real-world utility as interest in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) continues to grow.

In a Cointelegraph interview at the Token20249 event in Dubai, OKX MENA CEO Rifad Mahasneh warned that while tokenization is promising, projects must “clearly demonstrate” the benefits of tokenizing specific assets.

“In some cases, we’re tokenizing things that don’t need tokenization, but in some cases, we’re tokenizing things that actually give you real, everyday value, right? And if you can see that everyday value, then that is a promising project,” Mahasneh told Cointelegraph.

He said hype can drive project growth in the Web3 space, but providing everyday value should be the priority.

RWA tokenization gains traction in the UAE

Mahasneh’s comments come amid an increase in real-world asset tokenization projects in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates.

On May 1, MultiBank Group signed a $3 billion RWA agreement with the UAE-based real-estate firm MAG and blockchain infrastructure provider Mavryk — the largest RWA initiative worldwide to date.

In addition to billions in RWA deals, the UAE government has started working on RWA tokenization. On March 19, the Dubai Land Department — the government agency responsible for promoting, organizing and registering real estate in Dubai — announced a pilot phase of its real-estate tokenization project. The agency is working with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the emirate’s crypto regulator.

On Jan. 9, RWA project Mantra also signed a $1 billion deal with Damac Group to tokenize the assets of the UAE-based conglomerate. However, months later, Mantra saw one of the biggest token collapses in crypto history, wiping out billions in market capitalization on April 13.

Mahasneh told Cointelegraph that the region’s clear regulations help drive bigger institutions to get into tokenization and crypto. He said regulatory clarity allows understanding of how key players in the space, like exchanges, are governed.

UAE stablecoin framework gives institutions confidence

The executive also praised the region’s progress in stablecoin regulations. In June 2024, the Central Bank of the UAE approved a regulatory framework for stablecoin licensing. This clarified the issuance, supervision and licensing of dirham-backed payment tokens.

According to Mahasneh, this demonstrates the UAE’s speed in regulating crypto-related technologies. The executive also highlighted that the central bank’s involvement gives institutions extra confidence in entering the business.

“Other markets are still debating whether they should have crypto regulations. Here, we moved into developing stablecoin regulations. For an investor, you want to know that your stablecoin is regulated. That’s a big plus,” Mahasneh said.

Since then, major players like Tether have joined the race by issuing a dirham-pegged stablecoin. On April 29, institutions like Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), First Abu Dhabi Bank and the International Holding Company partnered to launch a dirham-pegged stablecoin, pending regulatory approval.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Politics

US Senate crypto bills stall amid Trump ties and ethics concerns

Published

6 hours ago

May 6, 2025

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US Senate crypto bills stall amid Trump ties and ethics concerns

Efforts to pass crypto legislation in the US Senate face mounting resistance amid growing ethical concerns around US President Donald Trump’s ties to crypto.

In a May 5 letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley said that Trump and his family stand to personally profit from an investment involving UAE state-backed firm MGX, crypto exchange Binance and World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

The senators called for an urgent probe, warning the deal may violate the US Constitution’s Emoluments Clause and federal bribery statutes.

At the center of the controversy is WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin, reportedly chosen for a $2 billion investment MGX plans to make into Binance.

The senators said the transaction amounts to a potential backdoor for foreign influence and self-enrichment, with Trump’s allies allegedly set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars:

“This deal raises the troubling prospect that the Trump and Witkoff families could expand the use of their stablecoin as an avenue to profit from foreign corruption.”

Further complicating ethics concerns, Trump hosted a $1.5 million-per-plate dinner on May 5 at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. The event came just days after hosting a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser for the MAGA super PAC.

He also plans to hold a gala dinner with major Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin holders on May 22, despite multiple US lawmakers expressing concerns.

GENIUS Act faces roadblocks

The Trump family’s controversial $2 billion crypto deal comes as the Senate prepares to vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act and other crypto-related bills.

The fallout is already being felt in Congress. Some Democratic lawmakers are pushing for additional hearings before advancing any legislation, while others question whether Trump’s personal stake in digital assets is undermining bipartisan support for crypto regulation.

On May 5, Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled a willingness to amend the GOP-backed stablecoin legislation to pass the bill in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters, Thune said changes can be made on the floor and that he is waiting to hear what Democrats are asking for, per a report from Politico.

Internal GOP challenges also remain, with Senator Rand Paul expressing uncertainty about backing the bill, according to the report.

The stalling isn’t limited to the Senate. House Financial Services Committee ranking member Representative Maxine Waters plans to block a Republican-led event discussing digital assets on May 6.

The hearing, “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets,” will discuss a new crypto markets draft discussion paper pitched by the House agricultural and financial services committee chairs, Representatives Glenn Thompson and French Hill, respectively.

Crypto community slams political pushback

Prominent crypto figures are speaking out as political resistance threatens to derail stablecoin legislation in the Senate.

“Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer haven’t learned their lesson,” Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, posted on X.

“If they want Democrats to continue losing elections, they will continue standing in front of crypto legislation like the stablecoin bill which they are stalling out in the Senate.”