A recent report by the newly formed Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) – led by Labour’s “Rural Wall” MPs – found that an overwhelming majority of rural voters (82.7 per cent) want a distinct strategy to address the multiple challenges faced by rural communities. They also rank the environment as their second-most-important political issue.
This supports the findings of another recent study by Rural England and the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE), which highlighted a similarly strong sense of identity in rural Britain that is often overlooked and misunderstood by policymakers.
Rural England’s report explored the challenges of “electrifying” rural communities – or the mass roll-out of heat pumps. This is the government’s favoured route to decarbonising the UK’s housing stock, and its Warm Homes Plan will outline how it intends to achieve this.
Rural England spoke to Gloucestershire residents about what the transition to cleaner heating technologies, such as heat pumps, could mean for them as the government also introduces policies to mandate energy efficiency standards for homes for the first time.
Key themes include the extra support rural homeowners require to overcome the higher upfront cost of improving their home’s energy efficiency, the impact of the transition on their rural identity, and the limited clean-heat technology options for harder-to-treat homes, which are common in the countryside. On the topic of cost and disruption, one respondent said: “If your home isn’t particularly well insulated already, the cost of doing all the other stuff that’s necessary to fit a heat pump might mean you still have to fork out a lot of money, which could make it both unaffordable and just too disruptive.”
Another said: “I suspect there’s a good chunk in the middle that don’t qualify for a grant, but would probably struggle to spend a lot of money on an upgrade or solar panels or whatever.”
The report also highlighted a hidden cost of electrifying the countryside: the loss of cultural capital embedded in people’s rural identity. Those interviewed mentioned their preference for Agas, the sense of independence they get from having a wood burner, and an ideal of living closer to the land – a lesson the Scottish government learned last year when its attempt to ban wood-burning stoves in new-builds prompted huge uproar.
Without providing the necessary flexibility to support rural households to decarbonise fairly and affordably, the Warm Homes Plan risks reinforcing the existing “heat pump only” mantra and further alienating rural voters. It’s therefore vital that the Labour Rural Wall stands up for the interests of rural communities and supports our call.
One demand is to provide parity of government support for hybrid heat pumps, which could help rural households without access to the gas grid to decarbonise affordably and with minimal disruption.
A recent government consultation on expanding the number of technologies supported by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) was limited to air-to-air heat pumps and heat batteries, excluding proven low-carbon hybrid heat pumps.
We believe the future strategy for decarbonising domestic heating must support rural homes that are unsuitable for heat pumps. It should include renewable liquid gases (RLGs) such as BioLPG (or biopropane) – a low-carbon, renewable and direct substitute for conventional LPG – as a supported tool for decarbonisation, in both standalone gas boilers and hybrid heat pump applications.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) contends that hybrids, which consist of a heat pump alongside a gas boiler, will prolong fossil fuel use. Yet many rural homes have high heat demand, making them unsuitable for heat pumps alone without expensive and disruptive property retrofits. Hybrids offer a flexible solution that reduces emissions and, importantly for consumers, can reduce household bills. When combined with RLGs, hybrids offer a long-term, net-zero-compatible solution. They should be supported by the Warm Homes Plan.
The decision to prioritise heat batteries over hybrid heat pumps within the BUS is perplexing. We consider heat batteries to be an under-researched technology, with only one or two domestic heating providers able to supply them, and suggest that further research is needed to back their inclusion in the BUS. According to figures produced by the National Energy Efficiency Data-Framework, around 35 per cent of rural homes use over 12,000kWh of heat annually, making them unsuitable for many heat-battery technologies. Consideration of the environmental impact of their production and end-of-life recycling is also required, due to the dense phase-change materials they contain, which are often difficult to recycle.
Hybrid heat pumps have been popular in the Netherlands and in Scotland, with more than 330 installations funded north of the border since 2023 under the Energy Savings Trust’s (EST) Home Energy Scotland grant scheme.
To take one example from the EST, Helga and John, residents of an interwar bungalow in Anstruther, Fife, undertook significant energy efficiency upgrades to enhance their home’s warmth and reduce running costs. Having initially considered an air-to-air heat pump, they opted for an 8kW Daikin Altherma hybrid air-to-water heat pump combined with a 31kW LPG condensing boiler. This system intelligently switches between electricity and LPG based on real-time energy prices and outdoor temperatures, ensuring optimal efficiency.
These upgrades have made the couple’s home significantly warmer and more comfortable, and resulted in substantially lower emissions, while accomodating the needs of John’s elderly mother without constant stove heating. The automated control system optimises heating based on variations in energy prices, allowing it to choose the most cost-effective heating method at any given time.
The government should take the opportunity and use the BUS ahead of the Warm Homes Plan to commit to hybrid heat pumps, sending a clear signal to the market, installers and households of their valuable role in decarbonising off-gas-grid properties.
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