The Government will roll back on a commitment to speed up the shift to heat pumps in tomorrow's budget - the latest of a series of U-turns on climate related issues.

The announcement shelves a key component of the UK government's plans to reduce emissions with legislation which was planned to be introduced in April.

The new policy would have introduced fines for boiler manufacturers if they failed to hit a target of an increasing number of heat pump sales each year. The target was expected to ensure around 350,000 of a proposed 600,000 heat pump sales a year needed by 2028 to meet carbon targets.

Heating from homes counts for around 30% of the UK's carbon budget. Observers said the move made the government "look weak in the face of gas industry opposition."

DESNZ had previously confirmed in December that the new regulation - known as the Clean Heat Market Mechanism - would be introduced in Parliament by April 1st.

However, a department spokesperson this week confirmed that no fines would be issued for the first year. Meanwhile insiders said last night “no regulation” would be introduced this year although DESNZ “remained committed to the policy”.

Experts said scrapping the plan could cause the UK's gas imports to be a one fifth higher by 2035.

Last night the government's former Net Zero tsar, Chris Skidmore said the decision represented a "challenge" for climate targets.

"If we don't deliver this, we are throwing money out of our doors, and roofs." he said.

"Our homes are losing heat at the fastest rate compared to all European countries. Eighty per cent of our heating is from gas and 50% from Europe."

Policy expert, Jess Ralston, the head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: "The announcement is likely to be another last minute policy U-turn that would make the government look weak in the face of the gas industry."

"The rollback would also damage the up and coming UK heat pump industry, with chopping and changing deterring future investment and growth."

Late last year, the Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho raised concerns that boiler manufacturers were raising prices by up to £300 a new boiler in order to bank more cash to cover future fines, a tactic that was labelled 'a boiler tax' but which the Energy Secretary dismissed as 'price gouging'.

Tomorrow's announcement will follow a pattern of the government retreating from climate-related initiatives announced in the past year.

In October, PM RIshi Sunak announced plans to water down policies aimed at helping to cut UK climate-warming emissions to zero overall by 2050, known as net zero.

In September, the government also rolled back on a commitment to ban sales of new diesel and petrol cars from 2030, moving it back instead to 2035.

Critics, including the CEO of Ford UK, Lisa Brankin, said the industry needed "three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency" but that the announcement "would undermine all three".

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