British Gas forced to take down 'misleading' advert claiming heat pumps can save customers up to £546

The Advertising Standards Authority banned adverts from Centrica-owned British Gas and Hive after finding their marketing exaggerated potential savings from heat pumps and solar panels.

British Gas had promoted heat pumps with claims households could save up to £546, while Hive suggested solar panels could cut electricity bills by as much as 94 per cent.

The adverts were identified by the regulator’s AI-powered monitoring system, which scans the internet for potentially misleading marketing.

Following its investigation, the ASA ruled the adverts breached advertising rules on five counts, including misleading advertising, failing to substantiate claims and inadequate price comparisons.

Both companies have been told the ads must not appear again in their current form and warned over future marketing.

The British Gas advertisement appeared on Meta in May 2025, featuring imagery of a person beside a heat pump alongside text promising customers could "go greener and lower your bills" by £546 when combining the technology with an exclusive tariff.

The energy supplier defended its claims by arguing the "up to" phrasing indicated that a substantial proportion of consumers, rather than all, would achieve such reductions. British Gas explained the figure came from modelling that estimated savings for customers replacing end-of-life boilers with air source heat pumps.

The company blamed space limitations for omitting detailed calculations from the advertisement.

However, the ASA found that British Gas's own modelling showed merely 34 per cent of 194 customers reached the advertised savings, with some actually facing increased bills.

Hive's national press advertisement featured a building with rooftop solar panels beneath the headline "Today's sunshine. Tomorrow's savings," promising customers could shrink their electricity bills by up to 94 per cent in the first year.

The company justified its claims using a model based on assumptions about electricity usage before and after installation, property location, tariff types, and system configuration. Like British Gas, Hive cited space constraints as the reason for not including fuller explanations.

When the ASA examined the figures using Hive's own methodology, it discovered only 44 per cent of customers would actually achieve the promised 94 per cent reduction. Some customers were even expected to see their bills rise following installation.

Mike Foster, of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, said: "We have warned the industry that it has an obligation to be totally transparent and fair in the claims it makes around heat pump performance.

"The reason for this is that it's a relatively new technology for consumers and the industry cannot afford to mislead people with cost savings that never materialise, as that's bad for the industry."

A British Gas spokesman said: "We are disappointed with the ASA ruling. Our advert showed the potential savings to customers from upgrading to a low-carbon heat pump, based on robust and transparent modelling."

The rulings come as the Government pursues its Warm Homes Plan, which allocates £2.7billion for heat pump grants of £7,500 each, targeting 450,000 installations annually by 2030.