Heat pumps present a vital opportunity to decarbonise UK social housing and tackle fuel poverty, but this study found that their successful deployment is currently undermined by issues with installation, commissioning, and tenant handover. Our research directly highlighted several key conclusions.

• Installation faults are common: All 92 heat pump audits uncovered design, physical, or commissioning faults, with average system efficiencies of 2.79, which is below the threshold needed for running cost parity with gas boilers. The low efficiencies of the audited systems in low-income settings are concerning, indicating a clear need for tighter quality assurance to protect tenants from high energy bills.
• Performance data is often hidden: The widespread unavailability of seasonal performance data underlines the importance of ensuring that social housing providers have access to heat pump performance data, without which they cannot see which systems are performing poorly.
• Single-touchpoint handovers leave tenants confused: Interviews across 37 households revealed that brief, inconsistent, and overly technical handovers leave tenants overwhelmed and without the practical confidence and knowledge needed to run their systems efficiently. Tenants misplacing materials like handover leaflets emphasised the need for multiple touchpoints, with instructions or guidance being located in fixed locations like water cylinders or communal areas.
• Low-cost remediation is possible: Follow-up repair visits to 30 homes showed that quality issues can often be addressed through simple and relatively cheap fixes, such as replacing pipe lagging or enabling weather compensation, and redoing tenant handovers showed some positive signals.

However, retroactively fixing poor installations is not a sustainable long-term strategy. In addition to targeted remediation, we think that correctly installed and operated heat pumps are achievable with better quality assurance, outcome-based procurement, upskilling staff and multiple points of ongoing tenant support. Bristol City Council is already working to implement many of these changes, including performance-based procurement specifications, updated quality assurance and handover procedures, staff training and remote monitoring trials.

We have outlined a series of possible solutions and directions for social landlords, which are set out more fully in our separate, downloadable action guide. These proposed actions are based both on the research findings and our combined operational experience working side by side with Bristol City Council and others in the industry to improve the quality of installations in social housing.