Heating engineers are reporting as much as 10 times their normal business volumes thanks to the government’s boiler scrappage scheme.
Fireplace and heating franchise Blazes has been among those reporting a surge in demand since the introduction of the scheme, which incentivises homeowners to replace inefficient G-rated boilers by giving them £400 off the price of a new, A-rated boiler as part of its attempts to reduce the UK’s CO2 emmissions. Many heating engineers have been offering a further £400 discount to customers.
One franchisee in Blaze’s central heating division, Steve Bate, said that “Since the boiler scrappage scheme I’ve gone from taking roughly 10 calls a week to more than 100.”
However, the Times reported last month that British Gas and other energy giants were effectively offsetting the savings made the through the scheme by charging significantly more for replacement boilers than local independent suppliers. The energy giant, which recently reported a 58% rise in profits to a record £595m, has being charging as much as £2,000 more than smaller firms, the paper reported.
