Boiler Upgrade Scheme

What the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays for

Each property can have one grant. Your installer takes it off the price they charge you. The grants now on GOV.UK are set at these amounts:

• £7,500 goes towards an air source heat pump, a type that is sometimes called air-to-water.
• £7,500 towards a heat pump that draws from the ground, with shared ground loops and water source pumps covered too.
• £5,000 towards a boiler burning biomass
• £2,500 towards a heat pump of the air-to-air kind

More money if your home runs on oil or LPG

Until March 2027, an extra £1,500 is on offer towards a heat pump of the ground or air source kind. Both of these must apply. Oil or LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) heats your home, and no mains gas line runs to it.

Under the Warm Homes Plan, £2,500 grants for heat battery systems used in central heating are being added as well. Heat batteries need no outdoor space, they store heat, and they can run on cheaper time-of-use tariffs.

Who qualifies for a BUS grant

You qualify when you own the property and swap out fossil fuel heating, like oil, gas, electric or LPG. Owning also covers businesses, second homes and homes you let to tenants.

So landlords can put in an application, but tenants can't for the home they're renting. No income limit or benefits test applies. Help you've already had to insulate your home doesn't stop you applying.

England and Wales are the only places the grant covers. If you're in Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan is the one to look at.

For a biomass boiler, your home must be rural and have no gas grid connection. An emissions certificate is also required for the boiler.

Homes and systems the grant doesn't cover

Some homes and systems are listed on GOV.UK as not eligible. These can't get the grant:

• most new build homes, though one that's finished and has a fossil fuel boiler may still count
• social housing
• a home that's already had government funding for a biomass boiler or heat pump
• a hybrid system, like a gas boiler working alongside a heat pump that uses air
• replacing low carbon heating you already have

How to apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

There's no form for you to fill in. Your installer applies on your behalf through the Ofgem website, and your quote and invoice show the grant. Your installer must get the heat pump fitted and commissioned within 120 days after you apply.

1. Get quotes from a few installers certified by MCS. MCS stands for the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, a body that checks heat pump installers.
2. Have the installer you pick confirm that you're eligible.
3. Settle on a quote with your installer.
4. To check that the installer really is acting for you, Ofgem gets in touch. Ofgem might call or visit you as well, to check the work.

What your EPC means for the grant

A home's energy use gets a rating from A to G on an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate). Check yours on the EPC register.

The government, according to the Warm Homes Plan, is taking away the scheme's requirement for a new EPC. Homes that would have had to get one or update it are saved the time and cost. Since an EPC isn't in the current eligibility rules, check with your installer on what proof to give.

The plan tells landlords the grant can help a rental hit band C on the measure for heating systems. This matters for the rental rule that applies from 2030.

How long the funding runs

About £2.7 billion goes into the scheme from the government, rising year by year until 2029/30, says the Warm Homes Plan. Roughly 400,000 more homes and small businesses could switch to clean heat with its help.