The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has this afternoon (Tuesday 20th September) held a press conference in Downing Street to confirm plans to delay the bans on new petrol and diesel car sales and gas boiler installations by five years to 2035.
The announcement, which was expected to be unveiled later this week, was brought forward after it was leaked overnight.
The four main points are:
- The 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be delayed by five years to 2035.
- A ban on installing new oil and LPG boilers, as well as new coal heating, for homes off the gas grid will be delayed from 2026 until 2035. He also weakened phasing out of gas boilers from 2035 so households struggling to switch to heat pumps will not have to make the switch.
- Policies that would have forced landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties have been scrapped.
- Grants to help households with the costs of replacing their gas boilers with heat pumps have been raised from £5,000 to £7,500.
Earlier Home Secretary Suella Braverman defended watering down net zero commitments by saying the government will not ‘save the planet by bankrupting the British people’. However, Boris Johnson lashed out at his successor – saying Britain ‘cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country’.
