Heat pump grants: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and other support

The heat pump grant in England and Wales is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: £7,500 off the installed price of an air source or ground source heat pump if your home qualifies, or £9,000 for an off-gas-grid home replacing oil or LPG (applications properly made 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027). Your MCS-certified installer applies to Ofgem and deducts the grant from your quote, so at the £12,826 England and Wales median (grants paid July to September 2026) you would pay £5,326, or £3,826 with the higher grant. Scotland has its own grant and interest-free loan; Northern Ireland has no grant open to every homeowner.

At a glance

• Amounts. In England and Wales the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) takes £7,500 off an air source or ground source heat pump, £9,000 off in an off-gas-grid home replacing oil or LPG (applications properly made 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027) and £2,500 off an air-to-air heat pump, if your home qualifies.
• Who applies. For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales, your installer applies, not you. For BUS it must be certified by MCS (the Microgeneration Certification Scheme) and belong to an approved consumer code such as RECC or HIES. You confirm consent when Ofgem emails you.
• Main conditions. For BUS you own the home, and the old gas, oil or LPG heating is fully replaced, not kept alongside. No Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and no loft or cavity insulation are required.
• Timing. For BUS, agree the start date once the voucher is issued; the work must then be finished within 3 months (6 months for ground source).
• Elsewhere. In Scotland you apply to Home Energy Scotland yourself and wait for a written offer; in Northern Ireland some lower-income owners can get a fully funded heat pump.

How much is the heat pump grant? Boiler Upgrade Scheme amounts

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government grant towards heat pumps, and in limited cases biomass boilers, in England and Wales. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero sets the rules and Ofgem runs it. You never receive the money: Ofgem pays your installer, who takes it off your quote and invoice. There is one grant per property, and it is a fixed sum for the type of heat pump, not a share of the price.

• Air source heat pump. £7,500 in England and Wales if your home qualifies, for an air-to-water unit that heats radiators and hot water.
• Ground source heat pump. £7,500 in England and Wales if your home qualifies, water source and shared ground loops included.
• Off-gas homes. £9,000 in England and Wales for an air-to-water or ground source heat pump replacing oil or LPG in a home off the gas grid, for applications properly made 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027.
• Air-to-air heat pump. £2,500 in England and Wales since 28 April 2026, for homes only.
• Loans. No BUS loan, but a lender taking part in the Warm Homes Loan Scheme may offer a loan for the cost above the grant.
• Northern Ireland. No BUS; schemes under NISEP, Northern Ireland's energy-saving programme, fully fund a heat pump for some owner-occupiers on lower incomes.

"Off the gas grid" has a strict meaning here. Your home must not be fuelled by mains gas, must have no record of a gas meter point, and must not be on a heat network or be a new build. A home with a mains gas meter point, even a capped or clamped one, can't get the higher off-gas grant, though the standard £7,500 may still apply if it qualifies. Self-builds get £7,500 at most. Your installer supplies the evidence, such as an EPC, recent fuel bills or photos of the boiler. An application counts as "properly made" once Ofgem has everything it needs and you have given consent and confirmed your identity; that date decides whether it falls in the window for the higher off-gas grant. For the oil case, see replacing an oil boiler with a heat pump.

The sum is simple: what you pay = installed price − grant. At the £12,826 median for an air source heat pump in England and Wales (grants paid July to September 2026, reported by MCS installers, VAT included, before the grant):

Grant and what you pay at the £12,826 median

Gas home: Grant £7,500 · You pay £5,326

£0£5,000£10,000£15,000

£12,826£12,826£12,826

Gas homeOil or LPG home, off-gasBoiler kept

• Grant
• You pay

Situation	Grant	You pay
Gas home	£7,500	£5,326
Oil or LPG home, off-gas	£9,000	£3,826
Boiler kept	£0	£12,826

The median is a reference point, not a quote for your home; prices by size and type, and what a quote should include, are in heat pump cost. The median already reflects VAT at 0%, which applies to a heat pump supplied and installed in your home until 31 March 2027, then 5%, everywhere in the UK. A heat pump bought without installation is standard-rated.

Who is eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme?

You may qualify if you own the property in England or Wales, whether you live there, let it or use it as a second home. The heat pump must replace fossil-fuel heating (gas, oil or LPG) or electric heating such as storage heaters. Since 28 April 2026 no Energy Performance Certificate is needed, and the insulation condition was removed in 2024. Ofgem still recommends insulation where practical and affordable, because a heat pump works best in a home that loses less heat.

How common situations affect the grant:

The replacement rule matters most: Ofgem's guidance says you can't keep fossil-fuel heating alongside a funded heat pump. If you want to keep a gas supply for cooking, ask your installer how that fits the rule. A heat pump with a boiler as back-up gets no grant; hybrid heat pumps explains why.

An air-to-water or ground source heat pump needs to be an MCS-certified product with a seasonal efficiency (SCOP) of at least 2.8 and a capacity of no more than 45 kW (300 kW on a shared ground loop), and it must cover your full heating and hot-water demand. Your installer checks this before applying, and Ofgem decides; nobody can confirm eligibility before a full application. The air-to-air grant has its own limits: see air-to-air heat pumps.

How the Boiler Upgrade Scheme works, step by step

In England and Wales the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is installer-led: you can't apply yourself (in Scotland you do, as the nation table below shows). Ofgem's guidance sets out six steps:

1. Choose an installer. MCS-certified and, for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, in an approved consumer code such as RECC or HIES; Ofgem encourages more than one quote.
2. Survey and quote. The installer visits for a heat-loss assessment and gives an itemised quote: the total before the grant, the grant, and what you pay after it.
3. Installer applies. Once you go ahead, the installer sends Ofgem the voucher application with evidence of your current heating.
4. Your consent. Ofgem emails you a secure link; you confirm consent and identity within 14 days (28 days on the assisted phone or post route). Ofgem then issues the voucher.
5. Installation. The installer fits and commissions the heat pump and redeems the voucher within 3 months of approval (6 months for ground source).
6. Redemption. Ofgem checks the redemption and pays the grant to the installer. You pay the balance on your invoice and keep the MCS certificate.

Consent doesn't create a contract with the installer. The deduction is a legal duty: the installer must show the full grant as an upfront discount and must not charge you the deducted amount. If Ofgem refuses the application or revokes the voucher, whether the installer can then charge you that sum depends on your contract, so read that clause before you sign.

A timeline for our example home

Our example home is a 1970s semi-detached house in England (97 m², radiators, a gas combi boiler due for replacement). The price is the £12,826 median as an illustration; the dates are assumed:

If the work slipped past 19 February 2027, the installer would reapply and you would consent again. Whether the £5,326 pays back against a new gas boiler depends on how efficiently the heat pump runs; heat pump vs gas boiler works it through.

Heat pump grants by nation

Grants differ by nation; the 0% VAT rule on installed heat pumps (until 31 March 2027) and the Warm Homes Loan Scheme apply across the UK.

In Scotland you contact Home Energy Scotland, apply with your installer's quote and start no work until the written funding offer arrives; nothing is funded retrospectively. Hybrids and air-to-air units get nothing. For the steps, the rural uplift and the loan terms, see Home Energy Scotland grants and loans.

Northern Ireland: what support exists

BUS doesn't cover Northern Ireland, its Boiler Replacement Scheme is closed, and there is no grant open to every homeowner. Heat-pump funding is available through NISEP, the energy-saving programme funded by Northern Ireland electricity customers, from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 or until its money runs out. nidirect also lists the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's Affordable Warmth Scheme among the energy-saving grants.

Two NISEP schemes, Green Heat NI and Toasty Homes – Heat Pump and Solar Technologies, fully fund an air source heat pump, with loft or cavity wall insulation where needed. Both are for owner-occupiers with a gross household income or pension below £28,000 for a single person, or below £35,000 for a couple, joint household or single-parent family. The home must have one of these: no central heating, solid-fuel heating, an oil or LPG boiler that is over 15 years old or beyond economic repair, or older storage heaters (Economy 7 heaters fitted before 2018, for example). Scheme managers run waiting lists when funds are short. NI Energy Advice gives free, impartial advice on which scheme fits.

Heat pump loans and finance

Warm Homes Loan Scheme. Under this UK-wide scheme, private lenders authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority can offer heat pump loans at a lower rate, because the government pays them a subsidy of up to 20% of the loan. On loans of 3 years or more the rate is cut by up to 5 percentage points, but never below 0%. For an air-to-water heat pump it supports loans on costs up to £20,000 before the BUS grant, so a loan can cover what the grant leaves; air-to-air heat pumps aren't covered until MCS certifies them. Loans come from participating lenders listed on GOV.UK; each lender sets its own rate, term and checks, and not every lender offers it.

Home Energy Scotland loan. In Scotland an optional interest-free loan of up to £7,500 can sit on top of the grant; the terms are in Home Energy Scotland grants and loans.

Installer finance. For BUS, check that you become the legal owner of the heat pump: if the finance company keeps ownership, the installation is ineligible. Compare any credit on its APR and the total you will repay. Whether to borrow depends on your finances; an independent adviser can help.

Checklist: before you agree to a quote

These points decide whether the grant comes off your invoice.

• Nation. BUS only in England and Wales; in Scotland apply to Home Energy Scotland first.
• Old heating. The quote removes the gas, oil or LPG heating rather than keeping it as back-up.
• Off-gas evidence. For the higher off-gas grant, a recent oil or LPG bill or photos of the boiler, and no gas meter point.
• Ownership. Any finance leaves you as the legal owner of the heat pump.
• Voucher. Agree the start date only once the voucher is issued.

To compare two installers' quotes line by line, see choosing an MCS installer.

Figures that change

How we worked this out

The grant arithmetic uses the median installed price for England and Wales for grants paid July–September 2026 (before the grant, VAT included) and our example home (1970s gas semi, 97 m²) with assumed dates; it leaves out running costs, finance and any work outside the quote. More in our editorial method.

Frequently asked questions

Are there low-interest loans for heat pumps?

It depends on the lender. Under the UK-wide Warm Homes Loan Scheme, lenders authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority can cut the rate on a heat pump loan by up to 5 percentage points, never below 0%, but each lender sets its own rate, term and checks, and not every lender offers it. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland offers an interest-free loan of up to £7,500 on top of its grant. Compare any loan on its APR and the total you will repay.

Do I need an EPC or insulation to get the grant?

Not in England and Wales: the EPC condition was removed on 28 April 2026 and the insulation condition in 2024. If your home has a valid EPC, your installer includes its reference; otherwise it can use bills or photos as evidence. Insulation is still worth discussing with your installer, because it lowers the heat loss the heat pump has to cover.

Is there a grant for air-to-air heat pumps?

Yes, in England and Wales the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump in a home, for applications properly made since 28 April 2026. Home Energy Scotland doesn't fund air-to-air heat pumps, and the Warm Homes Loan Scheme doesn't cover them until MCS certifies them.

Is the heat pump grant being reduced?

The amounts in England and Wales are set in a government notice that can be updated: under regulation 13 of the scheme's regulations, a new value must be published at least 28 days before it takes effect, and the current notice, with values in force since 21 July 2026, is on GOV.UK. The amending regulations in force from 22 October 2026 left the amounts unchanged. There is no closing date in force, and vouchers are issued first come, first served until the year's budget is reached (£400 million for 2026/27). The £9,000 in England and Wales for off-gas homes replacing oil or LPG is set for applications properly made by 31 March 2027. Check GOV.UK for the current amounts, and ask your installer to confirm the one that applies to your application.

Can I get the grant if the heat pump is already installed?

Possibly, in England and Wales: the application, including your consent, must be properly made within 120 days of commissioning, and Ofgem warns there is no guarantee the grant will be paid. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland funds nothing that was started before its written offer.

Is there a heat pump grant in Scotland or Northern Ireland?

In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland offers a grant of up to £7,500 plus an optional interest-free loan, and you apply before any work starts. In Northern Ireland there is no general grant, but NISEP schemes fully fund heat pumps for some lower-income owner-occupiers.