I’m no ‘eco-warrior’, says Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps

The minister responsible for delivering Britain’s net zero strategy has declared he is no “eco-warrior” as he unveiled a sweeping series of announcements aimed at reducing energy bills and making households greener.

Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, told Sky News he was taking environmentally friendly steps in his own home to save money on his soaring bills.

But he admitted in an earlier interview with GB News that he does not yet have a heat pump – one of the steps ministers want households to take to reduce reliance on gas boilers to warm their homes.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (centre) and Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (left), during a visit to the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon (PA)

He told Sky News: “We all know that electricity can be a big way to decarbonise, but we also know these are big changes. So this is not a sort of rip-out-your-boiler moment. This is a transition over a period of time to get to homes which are heated in a different way and also insulated much better.”

He admitted “we’re in the low numbers still” of heat pumps, with around 42,000 installed last year.

“This programme, which is latent, it’s at the beginning. There are technical issues that people are having to deal with in order to meet the switchover”.

Listing steps taken in his own home, including turning down the boiler flow, Mr Shapps said: “I’m gradually doing things. I’m not sort of some eco-warrior in this. I just want to try and save money on my energy bills like everybody else.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (centre) and Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (left), during a visit to the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, (PA)

As part of the Government’s “powering up Britain” strategy being unveiled on Thursday, a scheme offering households £5,000 to replace their gas boilers has been extended from 2026 to 2028.

But on the question of whether he had a heat pump in his own house Mr Shapps said he does not yet have one installed,

The minister said energy company workers will come to survey his house this month “to see about whether heat pumps can work”.

“Sort of living the dream as it were, or I’m hoping to. We’ll see what happens when they come around to my house,” he added.