A campaign to address a lack of certified heat pump installers in the UK has been launched by Energy Efficiency at City Plumbing, with support from the Energy Saving Trust and GTEC Training (at last count, there were 1,500 MCS certified heat pump installers in the country, compared to 135,000 trained gas engineers).
Speaking at the official launch of the company’s first Energy Efficiency Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire, MD Hemal Morjaria, said: “We are calling on installers to take this opportunity to upskill – and for the industry to make training as accessible as possible.
“The Heat Pump Association estimates we will need 30,000 certified installers to meet the government’s desire for 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028. So, there is a lot of work to do to convince and inspire installers to take up training. This skills gap was identified way back in 2019 by the Committee for Climate Change, and it is one of the key reasons we’ve opened our Energy Efficiency Centre. The aim is to help customers gain access to training, improve their own businesses and to help the country towards Net Zero.”
“The Energy Efficiency Centre is designed to help transition installers across to new technologies and to display the technologies we have here at City Plumbing. That includes heat pumps, solar panels, underfloor heating. This means homeowners can visit to find out more about alternative heat source technology, be inspired by what they see and visualise how it would work in their own homes.”
Hemal Morjaria is pictured above (right of pic) alongside Adam Foy, chief commercial officer of the Highbourne Group, and CEO Dave Evans. The national heating and plumbing merchant has partnered with GTEC Training to offer heat pumps training and is also opening its new Centre to the public.
Griff Thomas, Managing Director of GTEC Training, added: “Whichever way you look at it, heat pumps are here to stay and savvy plumbing and heating installers need to seize the opportunities presented by this market. Any investment in upskilling will be returned with a constant and growing stream of business for many years to come, and of course it is important for the environment, too. As a country we need to address this skills gap as soon as possible or face falling further behind.”
The next step in the campaign is a ‘Forward Together’ trade tour in conjunction with leading suppliers, to educate and inspire customers on alternative home heating solutions. The tour will visit 47 branches in England, Wales and Scotland between June and September, with customers able to meet big-name manufacturers such Vaillant, Daikin, Airflow, Worcester, Grant, Inta, Speedfit, Uponor and Maincor.
A full list of the branches taking part can be found here: https://eecityplumbing.co.uk/forward-together-tour
