The future of low-carbon off-gas grid home and business heating

Accessing the mains gas grid is the most common way in England, Wales and Scotland to heat a home.[1] Across Great Britain, however, approximately 4 million households are off the gas grid; they do not have access to mains gas and rely on alternative sources of fuel such as heating oil or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).[2] The Energy Saving Trust reports that it is “typically far more expensive to heat your home off-grid, which creates significant problems for the rural poor”.[3]

In 2017, the Government set an ambition in its Clean Growth Strategy to “phase out [during the 2020s] the installation of high carbon forms of fossil fuel heating” in both new, and existing, businesses and homes that were currently off the gas grid.[4] It emphasised that it was looking to reduce the emissions produced from heating the “850,000 homes currently not connected to the gas grid in England and that use oil for heating” and acknowledged that most of these homes were “in rural areas”.[5] More recent figures for England show that around 1.1 million homes are not connected to the gas grid and use fossil fuel heating, of which 78% use heating oil, 13% use LPG and 9% coal.[6]

This debate pack covers Government policy statements, consultations and schemes relating to off-gas grid heating for businesses and homes.

[1]      Citizens Advice Scotland, Off-gas consumers: Updated information on households without mains gas heating, June 2018

[2]      Energy Saving Trust, Why outside the grid does not mean outside of help, 19 March 2019

[3]      Energy Saving Trust, Why outside the grid does not mean outside of help, 19 March 2019

[4]      HM Government, The Clean Growth Strategy. Leading the way to a low carbon future (opens PDF), October 2017, p13

[5]      HM Government, The Clean Growth Strategy. Leading the way to a low carbon future (opens PDF), October 2017, p75&79

[6]      BEIS, Phasing Out the Installation of Fossil Fuel Heating in Homes Off the Gas Grid (opens PDF), October 2021, p6