New Government measures to replace gas boilers with heat pumps will be compulsory in the long-term, the international trade secretary has said.

       Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that while the Government’s drive to replace boilers with heat pumps will be optional to begin with, there will come “a point at which that changes”.

       “In the short term of course this is a voluntary scheme,” she told Sky News. “But every 10-15 years we all get a new boiler so as part of the transition, this journey to net-zero, as we as domestic citizens make changes to our homes these support frameworks are there but also we will be driving those changes in regulation.”

       Only 90,000 households will receive vouchers to help with the cost of removing their gas boilers under a scheme to be announced by the Government today.

       But Ms Trevelyan added that there are already schemes across local authorities, totalling billions of pounds, to help those on the lowest incomes to de-carbonise.

       “It’s going to help as we move through this transition in our domestic heating arrangements to help those who want to crack on now and indeed over many years ahead to change their boilers to a green energy solution,” she said.

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       The Government's boiler upgrade scheme only "scratches the surface" of what needs to be done to combat climate change, Labour has said.

       Pat McFadden, the shadow economic secretary for the Treasury, called for the Prime Minister to be more "ambitious" and claimed the new commitments fall short of what Mr Johnson had previously promised.

       “If we’re going to meet our climate change targets we have to be ambitious in how we do this," he told the Today programme. "So for example on this heat pump thing, Boris Johnson himself set a target of providing 600,000 heat pumps a year. The money announced in this package will provide just 30,000.

       “In advance of the Cop26 summit I think not just the country but the rest of the world was looking at what the UK would do. I think that announcement has failed the test of leadership and to match the ambition of what we can do as a country."

       Mr McFadden pointed to comments from the Office for Budget Responsibility which warned about the higher costs that could come as a result of not making investments soon enough.

       "The announcement made yesterday simply scratches the surface of what we need to do and doesn’t really get to grips with the problem or the scale of the investment needed."

       The roll-out of heat pumps or hydrogen boilers in place of gas boilers will take until 2036, the international trade secretary has suggested.

       Asked by the Today programme why ministers weren't going further, Ms Trevelyan said that the measures being being announced represent "a really fantastic first step".

       "It will probably take 15 years for all of us to do that. We've already been supporting those who are most vulnerable in social housing, and as you and I make those changes as we transition over the next 10 and 15 years, we will choose a clean energy solution," she said.

       "We all need to find ways to make our homes more energy-efficient, that reduces our bills, but also turning to more energy-efficient sources."

       Ms Trevelyan said ministers were encouraging the market to drive changes towards green energy amid the Government's refusal to confirm a future ban on gas boilers in the way that it has with petrol and diesel cars.

       Downing Street has given in to the demands of the Treasury and “backtracked” on its environmental commitments, Caroline Lucas has claimed.

       The Green Party MP for Brighton Pavillion said she was shocked by the absence of a clear date by which it will be legally impossible to buy a new gas boiler.

       “We all thought that, and now we’re just hearing that the Government is backtracking,” she said. “You can see the impact of an almighty row between the Treasury and Number 10 and the Treasury has clearly won.”

       Ms Lucas claimed Britain was lagging behind Italy and France on green energy and said it was an “extraordinary emission” not to include additional funding to ensure that more homes could be insulated.

       “We know that heat pumps are only going to work well if your homes are insulated, and there’s not the money in this package to properly insulate homes either. So this is another of Boris Johnson’s big flagship policies but when you start to look at some of the details, they're basically not there."

       Ms Lucas also told Sky News that Insulate Britain activists "should be blocking the treasury and not motorists - it's not people on the M25 who are making those decisions."

       An energy leader has urged the Government to lower the costs of its net-zero transition by making energy cheaper despite the current price surge.

       Emma Pinchbeck, the chief executive Energy UK, said that the fuel crisis presents an opportunity for the ministers to put the additional costs “somewhere else” so more households can afford to go green.

       “A very, very simple move that would change how we think about gas boilers versus heat pumps - just make electricity cheaper by putting those policy costs somewhere else,” she told Sky News.

       "The other thing to add is there's never been a better time to do that and reduce electricity bills than a time when we're facing an energy price spike and people are really struggling with their bills and will do so through the winter and into the spring."

       The cost of the Government’s new boiler voucher scheme to consumers will decrease significantly over time, a minister has pledged.

       Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, was challenged on the costs for householders of a new upgrade scheme which will give people ￡5,000 to switch from gas boilers to heat pumps.

       “The key point of course is that at the moment the heat pumps are relatively small volumes in production but as more of us take them on and invest in them the cost of production will go down and they will become much cheaper,” she told Sky News.

       A total of 90,000 households will receive vouchers to help with the cost of removing their gas boilers under the initial ￡450 million funding to be announced by the Government today.

       The Government will today publish its net-zero strategy as Boris Johnson commits to the 'ambition' of ending the sale of gas boilers in the UK from 2035.

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