It won’t be a surprise to those who follow the debate closely, but for policymakers it is a real headache.

When asked how important it was, to them personally, for the UK to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, 65 per cent of respondents said it was important; 27 per cent, not. No surprises that amongst 18–24-year-olds that split was 82 v 8 but for over 65s, the figure was 56 v 38. Amongst 2024 voters, Labour and Lib Dem voters offer huge support for the target 83/82 v 11/12 compared to Conservative and Reform voters suggesting it was not important to them 44/34 v 49/63. That political division is not helpful for investors looking at long-term timescales.

But when we asked people to consider home decarbonisation, we got a predictable response to the question of how much they would be willing to pay to have low carbon heating systems installed in their home. 40 per cent said nothing; 11 per cent up to £500; 13 per cent up to £1000; 11 per cent up to £5000; 3 per cent up to £10,000 and 1 per cent over that. Given a heat pump costs on average £13,000 to install, it is a sobering assessment of the challenge.

However it is packaged, this is a real problem that has no easy answers. And we shouldn’t dismiss the findings as contradictory – there is a desire or wish to achieve net zero but what is being offered as a route to do so is just unaffordable. Unless there is some technological breakthrough or government finds several hundred billion pounds behind the couch, then if the plan was to decarbonise with heat pumps, we need a new plan.