As the government seeks to accelerate the adoption of low-carbon technologies, heat pumps must be a key planned limit of one metre from neighbors’ property.

The change is part of the government's warm housing plan, which plans to lower household bills and cut emissions from planetary warming, meaning that millions of homes in England are easier to install heat pumps.

However, consumer groups warn that these changes will not help people who rent or lease property, and the biggest obstacle to installing a heat pump remains high upfront costs.

This is a particular issue for older housing stocks where there may also be a need to upgrade pipes and insulation.

Most UK homes use gas boilers for hot water and heating, but this can produce up to 14% of the warm greenhouse gases on the country’s planet.

Heat pumps, by contrast, use electricity, so as the country generates more electricity from solar and wind, such as solar and wind, they emit much less than the boiler generates.

However, if you live in one of 6 million homes in England, converting from a gas boiler to a heat pump is expensive and not easy.

Until Thursday, homeowners wanted to place the heat pump within one metre of their neighbor’s property due to noise concerns and needed a planned permit.

Tom Clarke, a gas engineer who recently retrained to fit a heat pump, said having to apply for a program license is a hurdle for his clients.

"When you travel through London, we have a lot of terraced houses and no matter where you set up the equipment, it will always be within one meter of the boundary distance," he said.

This is especially problematic for people who replace broken gas boilers, he said, as many customers don’t want to not heat up the council approval, rather than for more than a month.

Octopus Energy told parliament’s Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ) committee in 2023 that the program rules affected 27% of customers.

"Those who try to do it will have to wait on average eight to 10 weeks. Even if customers meet all the requirements, there is no guarantee that local councils will grant permission because they all have different interpretations of central planning guidelines," the company wrote in the submission. "The combined impact of all these things means that few of the 27% of customers who need a plan will be able to install it."

This rule has now been removed to accelerate heat pump absorption. Previous concerns about noise were not a problem with new equipment, although units were still required to be below a certain amount of levels.

Plan changes also include relaxing rules and quantity of heat pumps that homes can install.

The families most likely to be affected are those living in terraced housing. In 2021, they account for 5.7 million households, accounting for 23% of the total. Some of these still require planning permission, such as those living in reserves and those installing ground source heat pumps.

The change is part of the government’s warm-up program, which aims to provide 300,000 households upgrades to improve energy efficiency and lower bills.

Although the heat pump industry welcomes these changes, many point out that the main obstacle for many customers is that installing heat pumps is expensive, especially in older homes, where better insulation may also be required.

This is the case with social housing real estate in Sutton's residence in Chelsea, London, which has undergone a comprehensive renovation of its fabrics along with the new heating network.

Its landlord, Clarion Housing Group, did get grants from the government to install a new network, but also invested its own money.

Stuart Gadsden, the company’s business director who designed and installed the system, said that this is a problem for many landlords: “One big (barrier) is funding, which obviously costs more installation costs than traditional gas boiler systems.

“In the social housing industry, we get funding from the warm housing social housing fund, but it’s double-ordered. Many housing associations want to put low-carbon heating in, but don’t have enough time to solve it.”

Tenants must rely on the landlord's willingness to make initial up-term investments.

Rob Lane, chief real estate officer at Clarion, said the company would be happy to do this in Sutton homes due to the impact on residents: “We are waiting for how much the system will cost, but our forecasts suggest that the average cost per home is £450 to £450 to £500 per year (a year) – a huge savings for residents.”

Beginning in 2030, as part of the “Greenhouse Program”, all private landlords will need to demand that their property be improved energy efficiency.

However, the current way of computing the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) means that gas boilers can sometimes have better ratings than heat pumps because it looks at the energy costs and assumes that gas is cheaper.

Katy King, deputy director of sustainability at charity NESTA, said the government could reduce electricity costs.

"The UK has the most expensive electricity price in Europe. The government can levy electricity and put it into gasoline or use general taxes. It's a tricky option and we do hope they can consult within a year," she said.