The cabinet plans to require homeowners replacing their central-heating boiler from 2029 to install a smart hybrid heat pump, by tightening standards so that a conventional gas-fired boiler no longer qualifies. Minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan said in a letter to parliament that hybrid systems are intended as an interim step towards heating all buildings without natural gas by 2050. The minister said the requirement is necessary because households are not moving away from fully gas-fired boilers quickly enough, and promised that it should not impose unaffordable costs on homeowners. One report said the plan would also require action by parliament; another said the shift would place extra demands on the already overloaded electricity grid.