Skip to content

Ministers knew heating subsidy was paying billions to UK’s wealthiest

It’s costing taxpayers £23bn, disproportionately benefiting rich landowners, and may be little more than greenwash

Ministers knew heating subsidy was paying billions to UK’s wealthiest
Landowners have claimed in excess of £1m each to heat their country houses in an echo of the Northern Irish 'cash for ash' scandal | Thicha/fotofabrika/Marcin Jucha/Adobe Stock Images
Published:

“Large (the bigger the better) and with outbuildings. Own woodland even better.”

This is hardly the description of a home whose owners need help paying for the basics.

Yet it was one estate agent’s candid assessment in 2011 of the “ideal property” that would most benefit from the government’s new Renewable Heat Incentive – a subsidy that was notionally supposed to make green energy more accessible.