Now I don’t want to pour water over their assumptions, but claiming a £5500 saving through not replacing a boiler just seems a little high. Let’s leave it at that for the moment. What it does show is the desperate need for an objective body that will tell consumers the truth about such claims – for good and bad.

Over the past few months I have seen so many spurious claims about savings and benefits, many of which I raised an eyebrow to, some were just wildly exaggerated. Now I recognise that working in the industry I have access to a wide range of sources and data that can help me make a judgement on such claims – it’s part of my day job. But what about the ordinary consumer, leading a busy life, do they have time to check out the details as you and I would do?

So, who do they turn to? Some of the help and guidance I have seen from bodies that consumers should turn to is also “skewed.” Not a surprise given their funding and governance but our industry could do better.

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a  roundtable at the Installer Show, where interested parties from right across the sector all agreed that having an objective body they could turn to for advice and fact checking would be useful. And we also identified the funding source that would be needed for such a venture.

Under the dreaded Clean Heat Market Mechanism, a ‘boiler tax’ is currently levied and we estimate that this year alone it will raise over £25 million. More than enough to fund such a body and at the same time give consumers some reassurances on what is on offer.