Chat with an expert
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump in a home in England or Wales that runs on a fossil fuel boiler. You don’t apply for it yourself. Your installer applies, and the £7,500 comes off your quote. The scheme runs until 2030.
What the grant covers
One grant per property, set by the technology installed.
| Technology | Grant |
|---|---|
| Air source heat pump (air-to-water) | £7,500 |
| Ground source heat pump, including water source and shared ground loops | £7,500 |
| Biomass boiler, rural properties off the gas grid only | £5,000 |
| Air-to-air heat pump | £2,500 |
Hybrid systems, where a heat pump runs alongside a boiler, are not covered. Replacing a heating system that is already low carbon is not covered. Systems are capped at 45 kW of heat output for a single unit, 70 kW where more than one heat pump is installed together.
Homes heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection get an extra £1,500 on an air source or ground source heat pump until March 2027.
The air source heat pump grant
Most grants go on air-to-water units: a box outside the house that heats water for radiators and a hot water cylinder. That is the £7,500 grant. An air-to-air unit, which blows warm air into rooms and heats no water, gets £2,500. If a quote says “air source heat pump”, check which of the two it means, because the grant differs by £5,000.
Heat pump grant eligibility
You qualify when all of these hold:
- You own the property. Landlords, second-home owners and businesses can apply for buildings they own.
- The property is in England or Wales. Scotland is not covered and gov.uk points Scottish readers to separate support. The Northern Ireland scheme has closed.
- You are replacing a fossil fuel system: oil, gas, LPG or electric heating.
- The property is not social housing and has not already had government funding for a heat pump or biomass boiler.
- The property is not still being built by a developer. If you have moved into a finished new build that came with a fossil fuel boiler, you may qualify. A house you built yourself, or paid a builder to build, qualifies with the title deeds as proof.
Two earlier conditions no longer apply. Since 28 April 2026 a valid Energy Performance Certificate is not a condition of the grant. If your home has one, the installer uses it; if not, the installer supplies a recent utility bill and photographs of the existing heating instead. And having had earlier funding for insulation does not count against you.
How to get it, step by step
- Get quotes from installers certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. Only an MCS installer can claim the grant. Ask each one to show the grant as a deduction on the quote.
- Choose an installer. They apply to Ofgem for the grant voucher on your behalf.
- Ofgem contacts you to confirm the installer is acting for you. The application does not go ahead until you have.
- The installer must fit and commission the system within 120 days of applying. Miss that and the application lapses.
- You pay the quoted amount less the grant. The deduction appears on the quote and the invoice. Ofgem or MCS may phone or visit to check the installation.
What you will still pay
The government’s scheme statistics put the median cost of an air source heat pump installed under the grant at £13,021 in the 2025/26 scheme year, across 30,590 installations, including the unit, the installer’s fees and the home upgrades done alongside it. After the £7,500 grant, that is about £5,500 for a typical installation. Larger radiators, a new hot water cylinder or new pipework push it higher; a home that already has them comes in lower. Running costs against a gas boiler depend on your tariff and how well the system is set up: the running-cost comparison covers that.
Is your home ready: what a heat pump survey checks
A heat pump runs at lower temperatures than a boiler, so the house has to be able to hold the heat and the radiators have to be big enough to give it out. A heat pump survey measures that before you commit to a quote:
- heat loss, room by room, from the walls, roof, floor and windows
- insulation in the loft and walls, and what is missing
- radiator sizes against each room’s heat loss, and which would need replacing
- space for a hot water cylinder, if there isn’t one
- where the outdoor unit can sit, with clearance and noise distance to neighbours
- the electrical supply and whether it needs upgrading
The visit is non-invasive: nothing is drilled and no floorboards come up. The assessor records the property and does not quote for the work, which is how Elmhurst Energy, the accreditation body, defines the role, so the report is a diagnosis you can take to any installer rather than a sales document.
Inter Infinity carries out heat pump surveys and Energy Performance Certificates across London and Kent. The survey is booked as a retrofit assessment, and an EPC can be done on the same visit if you want one on record for the installer.
What can go wrong
- A quote that does not show the grant as a deduction. The grant is paid to the installer, so it has to be on the quote and the invoice.
- An installer who is not MCS certified. Without that certification there is no grant, whatever the quote says.
- Missing the 120-day window after the application.
- A hybrid system, which is not eligible however the quote describes it.
- A property that already had public funding for a heat pump, or a low-carbon system being replaced. Neither qualifies.
Your next steps
- Check whether your home has an Energy Performance Certificate on the register. It isn’t required any more, but its recommendations show what insulation to do first.
- Get two or three quotes from MCS certified installers, each with the grant deducted.
- Read the scheme pages on gov.uk before you confirm anything to Ofgem.
- If you don’t qualify, other grants and schemes for home energy work are set out separately.
Sources
- Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, gov.uk, including the “what you can get”, “check if you’re eligible” and “how to apply” pages, read 8 October 2026
- Summary of updates to Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance for installers, V5, Ofgem, 24 April 2026
- Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics: July 2026, Table A1.3A, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, from Ofgem and MCS installation data
- Air source heat pumps, Energy Saving Trust
