Rishi Sunak on Wednesday held a hastily-arranged press conference in Downing Street to announce major changes to his environmental policies to make them more affordable for hard-pressed households.
While he said he was still committed to the target of making the UK net zero by 2050, the Prime Minister said changes had to be made in the wake of the cost of living crisis to ensure families could afford green laws.
The changes will delay the switch from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles, and from gas boilers to environmentally-friendly heat pumps.
Here, the Telegraph takes a look at what it means for you.
2030 petrol and diesel car ban delayed
The ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be put off by five years, from 2030 to 2035.
It means families who do want to switch will be able to take advantage of falling prices for electric vehicles over the coming decade.
After 2035 all new cars will have to be zero emissions, but people will still be able to buy and sell second-hand petrol and diesel vehicles.
Mr Sunak said the move will put the UK in line with most other European countries and many US states.
It comes days after the Prime Minister’s predecessor Liz Truss urged a delay to the petrol car ban, saying the Government’s approach to net zero needs to be one that is “pragmatic and doesn’t unfairly add costs to the public.”
The original deadline was set in 2020. Just three years later it is being extended.
Mr Sunak said electric cars were already becoming more popular, because they were becoming cheaper.
“I expect that by 2030, the vast majority of cars sold will be electric,” he said.
“Why? Because the costs are reducing; the range is improving; the charging infrastructure is growing.
“People are already choosing electric vehicles to such an extent that we’re registering a new one every 60 seconds. But I also think that at least for now, it should be you the consumer that makes that choice, not government forcing you to do it.”
The Prime Minister said costs need to be brought down in the wake of the cost of living crisis.
He admitted the UK had further to go in setting up its charging infrastructure for electric cars, and said the British auto industry needs to be strengthened to help it compete with China.
“To give us more time to prepare, I’m announcing today that we’re going to ease the transition to electric vehicles,” he said. “You’ll still be able to buy petrol and diesel cars and vans until 2035.
“Even after that, you’ll still be able to buy and sell them second-hand.
“We’re aligning our approach with countries like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and US states such as California, New York and Massachusetts and still ahead of the rest of America and other countries like New Zealand.”
The move was welcomed by Fair Fuel UK, which said the original plan was “always doomed to be dropped”.
But Ford, one of the UK’s most popular car brands said the change would “undermine” the move to electric vehicles.
Gas boilers staying for longer
People will have “far more time” to replace their gas boilers with heat pumps, and be given more money to help them make the change.
The plan was for all new gas boilers to be banned after 2035.
For a family living in a terraced house in Darlington, the upfront cost could be around ￡10,000.
But Mr Sunak said about a fifth of homes, for whom heat pumps would be ineffective, will be handed an exemption from having to make the change at all.
The exemption will cover those on off-gas-grid homes, people who need expensive retrofitting or a very large electricity connection.
The date until which most families will be able to buy gas boilers – 2035 – remains.
However, a handout called the Boiler Upgrade Grant will be increased by 50 per cent to a ￡7,500 voucher.
This will help those who want to replace their boiler with a heat pump or another low-carbon alternative.
Mr Sunak said he had watered down the target to avoid “imposing costs on hard-pressed families, at a time when technology is often still expensive and won’t work in all homes”.
“I’m announcing today that we will give people far more time to make the necessary transition to heat pumps,” he said. “We’ll never force anyone to rip out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump.
“You’ll only ever have to make the switch when you’re replacing your boiler anyway, and even then, not until 2035.
“And to help those households for whom this will be hardest I’m introducing a new exemption today so that they’ll never have to switch at all.”
The current voucher scheme offers ￡5,000 for air source heat pumps and ￡6,000 for ground source models.
It comes after low take-up of the upgrade scheme, with only 14,800 vouchers redeemed up to last week.
With a typical heat pump costing ￡13,000 to install before any grant, the upfront costs of the devices remain high even after the grants are applied.
Ministers hope that making the boiler upgrade scheme more generous will help to stimulate demand, boosting sales and helping manufacturers to bring down prices.
Octopus Energy, which owns Northern Ireland heat pump manufacturer RED, last week announced a new model – the Cosy 6 – that it said could cost as little as ￡5,000 if no home improvements were necessary.
Ministers launched the boiler upgrade scheme in May 2022 to encourage more households to replace their gas-fired boilers with electric-powered heat pumps.
However, uptake is still falling drastically short of the Government’s target to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028.
Keeping oil boilers for longer
Families with oil or liquid petroleum gas boilers and coal heating systems were facing the prospect of having to scrap them after 2026.
Oil boilers were due to be phased out from that year, with the sale of new ones being banned.
Instead Mr Sunak said this ban will be delayed until 2035, ensuring homeowners will not face the prospect of having to spend ￡10,000 or ￡15,000 upgrading their homes in three years’ time.
An oil boiler ban could affect around 1.7 million homes and has been the centre of a backlash from Tory MPs, with former environment secretary George Eustice likening it to a “rural Ulez”.
Many cited the expensive cost to install heat pumps, with or without a government grant, and expressed fears that in remote areas without connection to the grid, a heat pump will be insufficient in heating their property.
Landlords’ improvements scrapped
Landlords will no longer be forced to make costly improvements to their rental properties after Mr Sunak scrapped requirements to make homes more energy efficient.
The plans would have forced all homes available to let in England and Wales to achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of at least a C, the third highest efficiency rating, as soon as 2025.
To meet the new rules, property owners would have had to spend an average of ￡8,000 on insulation and other improvements, according to research by the estate agents Hamptons.
Failure to do so could have led to a ￡30,000 fine.
Homes are given an EPC score from A for the most efficient homes, to G for the least.
More than 2.4 million privately rented homes in England are estimated to fall below EPC band C, which amounts to 56 per cent of all private lets.
The minimum requirement rule was due to come into force on April 1 2025 for new leases and April 1 2028 for existing leases, but campaigners warned landlords faced vast bills to insulate their properties and make other improvements such as installing heat pumps.
Others said the onerous requirements risked landlords selling up, creating a shortage of housing and pushing up rents.
Miles Gilham of Gilham Properties, a lettings agent, welcomed the abolition of the plans.
“It’s definitely a big positive,” he said. “The EPC scheme would have been a massive additional cost onto landlords, especially at this time when mortgage rates are rising.
“The uncertainty surrounding the scheme was damaging to the buy-to-rent market. Landlords didn’t know what they would have to pay.”