The Authorities’s drive to get Britons to put in warmth pumps of their dwelling was in the present day branded ‘shameful’ and an ’embarrassment’ after lacking its installations goal.

Fewer than 10,000 pumps have been put in in England and Wales through the first yr of a programme giving households a £5,000 voucher to assist cowl the price.

That is regardless of an official goal of 30,000 annual installations – whereas the scheme has additionally given out simply £60million price of vouchers from its £150million funds.

Air supply warmth pumps price between £7,000 and £14,000 to buy and set up, whereas a floor supply pump is between £15,000 and £35,000 – earlier than any voucher, though Octopus Power and British Fuel are engaged on cheaper alternate options.

Critics say the pumps, that are sometimes positioned outdoors on the again or aspect of a home, carry out poorly in chilly climate, particularly if a house is inadequately insulated or the radiators are usually not sufficiently big to present off ample warmth.

Mike Foster, chief government of the Power and Utilities Alliance commerce physique for boiler producers, mentioned: ‘It takes a sure sort of genius to fail to present away £150million of taxpayers’ cash and this wretched scheme seems to be prefer it has carried out simply that. When will the Authorities truly take heed to the individuals, the vast majority of whom merely can’t afford a warmth pump, subsidised or not?

‘The scheme is solely a taxpayer handout to those that don’t want it. It does little for carbon saving in comparison with funding on insulation. It doesn’t assist individuals maintain payments low. It takes from the poor to present to the rich and it is a humiliation of a coverage.’

He added that extra taxpayer-subsidised warmth pumps have doubtless been fitted in Cornish vacation houses than the entire of Birmingham, which is ‘shameful’.

Mr Foster mentioned: ‘Persons are nonetheless hurting with excessive power payments, insulating the houses of these most in want needs to be the precedence, not giving hard-earned taxpayers’ money to those that have been going to purchase a warmth pump anyway. It’s totally wasteful.

‘There was a time when a Conservative Authorities took delight in being fiscally prudent with taxpayers’ cash. Now they simply ladle out the money on a inexperienced spending spree. What makes this profligacy even worse is that insulation measures may save extra carbon, maintain payments down and supply a sound financial funding for the Treasury.’

The Boiler Improve Scheme gives Authorities grants as an incentive to exchange fossil fuel-burning fuel boilers with air or floor supply warmth pumps.

The scheme was launched in Might final yr however has been branded a ‘taxpayer handout to those that don’t want it’.

Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Web Zero Scrutiny Group of backbench Conservative MPs, informed the Each day Telegraph: ‘Even when the very wealthiest are being bribed by the Authorities to purchase warmth pumps, they’re refusing to take action.

‘A wise strategy to web zero includes permitting competitors to offer inexperienced merchandise that folks truly wish to purchase as a result of they work, somewhat than forcing upon them poor merchandise that don’t.’

It observe warnings from each the Nationwide Infrastructure Fee (NIC) and a Home of Lords committee warned that the 2028 objective seems to be unachievable.

The NIC, which advises the Authorities, final month warned that ministers had made ‘negligible advances’ in putting in low-carbon heating programs.

However the Division of Power Safety and Web Zero has defended the scheme, saying that warmth pumps are a ‘confirmed, scalable possibility for decarbonising warmth’.

And Rebecca Dibb-Simkin from Octopus Power, which manufactures and installs warmth pumps, insisted that demand had risen ‘tenfold’ for the reason that finish of final yr.

She informed the Telegraph that uptake of schemes reminiscent of this ‘usually begins gradual and picks up over time as teething points get mounted’.

Ms Dibb-Simkin additionally mentioned power efficiency certificates (EPC) necessities and planning guidelines have created a bottleneck for warmth pumps, however that is ‘altering quickly’.

The Authorities additionally has a goal for good meters to be rolled out to each dwelling by 2025, though that is additionally underneath risk with simply 50 per cent anticipated to be put in by the top of this yr.

Fuel boilers can be banned in new builds from 2025 – and the Authorities intends to ban the set up of latest ones utterly from 2035.

A spokesman for the Division of Power Safety and Web Zero mentioned:  ‘We’re decided to improve heating programs throughout the UK, anticipating uptake to rise and absolutely assured our goal of 600,000 warmth pumps installations by 2028 can be met.

‘Warmth pumps are a confirmed, scalable possibility for decarbonising warmth. The motion we’re taking to energy up Britain, growing our power safety and independence, will scale back the price of warmth pumps, making them a extra engaging possibility.

‘Our Boiler Improve Scheme will proceed to offer grants of as much as £6,000 in the direction of the upfront price of putting in a warmth pump, and can be prolonged with new, extra funding in annually till 2028.’