For heat pumps to thrive and to gain an appropriate share of a mixed energy sector, serving a flourishing UK economy, lobbying and representation at government level and at all other points of contact, such as BRE, MCS, OFGEM, Each Home Counts, CIBSE and with specifiers, will need to be as robust as possible. It is also essential that the heat pump sector is united from end to end; from supply chain, right through to end user.
The GSHPA Council has debated this future and has sought to learn the lessons from the past. Fragmentation of heat pump representation has always confused those who it interacts with, especially government ministries, and has provided other technologies with a clear divide and conquer opportunity. To combat the new forces ranged against it and to ensure that heat pump technology has the strongest possible representation in the coming years, the GSHPA Council has proposed that the existing two heat pump associations merge to form a single united body with the critical mass and combined resources that both have struggled to attain independently.
In addition to merging the two associations, it is proposed that the new Heat Pump Federation will become a member of The Federation of Environmental Trade Associations, FETA. Taking a place inside this industry federation will strengthen the voice that the heat pump sector will enjoy and will encourage heat pump technology on the path to its rightful place within the building industry in the UK as ‘core environmental technology'.
