Martyn Bridges, director of marketing and technical support at Worcester, Bosch Group claims that the recently unveiled 2015 boiler sales figures paint a true picture of how the market performs without short-term distortions.

Speaking after the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC) revealed a drop in boiler sales in 2015, Mr Bridges said that he believes installers should still have full faith in the stability of the market in the absence of government-funded initiatives such as the Green Deal and the ECO programme.

Mr Bridges said: “While the Green Deal and ECO did an extremely effective job of generating boiler sales in certain sectors, once an initiative like this slows or stops, the consequence is a drop in boiler sales the following year – but one we are able to anticipate. If we ignore sales attributed to ECO from 2014 and then do the same for the following year, what’s left is a fairly consistent, undistorted market – possibly even showing signs of marginal growth.

“Short-term government initiatives have a track record of creating a boom-bust scenario, which makes forecasting and planning extremely difficult for any business. Hopefully, we’re now close to being back in a position where we’re seeing a true reflection of the market’s organic performance without any misrepresentations. This stability will result in a buoyant boiler market that gives plenty of encouragement for installers over the course of this year.”