Most UK households can get a heat pump grant, but almost nobody gets the biggest one they qualify for. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays between £2,500 and £9,000, depending on the technology you install and whether you are off the gas grid.
Low-income households in England can have the entire installation funded instead, through ECO4 or the Warm Homes: Local Grant. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate schemes with different rules again. This guide routes you to the scheme you actually qualify for, what it pays, and which grants stack.
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- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 for an air-to-water heat pump - with no income test and no EPC requirement, this is the grant most homeowners in England and Wales will use
- Off-gas-grid homes can get £9,000 instead - available from 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027 for oil or LPG heated properties with no mains gas connection
- Air-to-air heat pumps now qualify for £2,500 - a separate and much lower rate that is frequently confused with the £7,500 air-to-water grant
- Low-income households can get 100% funded installations - through ECO4, which closes 31 December 2026, or the Warm Homes: Local Grant worth up to £30,000 per home
- Heat pumps carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027 - the rate returns to 5% from April 2027, so timing your installation before then saves real money
Which Heat Pump Grant Can You Get?
The grant you qualify for depends on three things: where you live, whether your household is means-tested, and which heat pump technology you install. Most homeowners in England and Wales will use the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, but if you claim qualifying benefits there are better options that fund the whole installation.
| Your situation | Scheme to use | What it pays | Income tested? |
|---|---|---|---|
| England or Wales, any income, mains gas | Boiler Upgrade Scheme | £7,500 air-to-water or ground source | No |
| England or Wales, off gas grid, oil or LPG heated | Boiler Upgrade Scheme | £9,000 air-to-water or ground source | No |
| England or Wales, installing air-to-air | Boiler Upgrade Scheme | £2,500 | No |
| England, low income, EPC D to G | Warm Homes: Local Grant | Up to £30,000 | Yes |
| England, Wales or Scotland, on qualifying benefits | ECO4 | Up to 100% of cost | Yes |
| Scotland, any income | Home Energy Scotland | £7,500 grant plus £7,500 interest-free loan | No (grant); loan subject to assessment |
| Scotland, remote rural or island | Home Energy Scotland | Additional £1,500 rural uplift | No |
| Wales, low income | Nest | Fully funded improvements | Yes |
| Northern Ireland | NISEP | Varies by scheme manager | Priority groups get at least 80% of funding |
If your household claims qualifying benefits or has a low income, check ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant before applying for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Those schemes can fund the entire installation, whereas the BUS covers only part of it. You cannot claim the BUS and then switch - a property that has already received government heating funding is excluded from the scheme.
Boiler Upgrade Scheme: How Much It Pays
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the UK government’s main heat pump grant for England and Wales. It pays a fixed amount towards the cost and installation of a low-carbon heating system, applied as a discount before you receive your invoice. Ofgem administers the scheme, and there is no income test at any point.
The scheme was significantly widened in 2026. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 extended the scheme’s operation through to 2030, removed the requirement for a property to hold a valid Energy Performance Certificate, and introduced new grant categories covering air-to-air heat pumps. If you were told in previous years that you needed to insulate first or hold a particular EPC rating, that barrier no longer exists.
| Technology | Grant | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Air source (air-to-water) heat pump | £7,500 | The standard domestic heat pump. Rises to £9,000 off gas grid. |
| Ground source heat pump | £7,500 | Includes water source and shared ground loop systems. Rises to £9,000 off gas grid. |
| Biomass boiler | £5,000 | Rural properties only in practice. |
| Air-to-air heat pump | £2,500 | Heats air directly rather than water. Does not provide hot water. |
Figures above are taken directly from GOV.UK’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme guidance, verified August 2026. You can only claim one grant per property.
The £9,000 Off-Gas-Grid Rate
Homes that are not connected to the mains gas network can claim £9,000 rather than £7,500 towards an air-to-water or ground source heat pump. Ofgem states this enhanced rate is available from 21 July 2026 until 31 March 2027.
To qualify, your property must be heated by oil or LPG and have no mains gas connection. Both conditions must be met. A rural home with a mains gas supply does not qualify for the uplift, and neither does an off-grid property already running on electric storage heaters. This is the single most valuable grant available to UK homeowners, and it has a hard deadline of 31 March 2027.
Why Air-to-Air Only Gets £2,500
An air-to-air heat pump heats the air in your rooms directly, like a reversible air conditioning system. It does not connect to radiators or produce hot water, so it cannot replace a boiler entirely. That is why the grant is £2,500 rather than £7,500.
This distinction catches people out. Installers advertising “the £7,500 heat pump grant” alongside air-to-air quotes are quoting the wrong rate. If your quote is for a system with indoor wall units and no hot water cylinder, the grant is £2,500. Our guide to heat pump sizing explains which system type suits which property.
Who Qualifies for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open to owners of residential and non-residential property in England and Wales, with no income requirement and no EPC rating threshold. Your installer must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, and they apply for the grant on your behalf.
You qualify if:
- Your property is in England or Wales
- You are replacing fossil fuel heating such as gas, oil, LPG or electric heating
- The heat pump is sized to meet the property’s full space heating requirement
- Your installer holds MCS certification
- The system is within the capacity limits: 45kWth for individual systems, 70kWth where multiple heat pumps are installed together, and 300kWth for shared ground loops
What the Scheme Will Not Fund
Four exclusions account for most rejected applications. Check these before you get quotes, because discovering them after installation is expensive.
- Hybrid systems. A gas boiler paired with a heat pump is explicitly excluded, however efficient the combination is
- Replacing an existing low-carbon system. If you already have a heat pump, you cannot get a grant to replace it
- New builds. Excluded except for self-builds meeting specific criteria
- Social housing, and any property that has already received government heating funding
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Fully Funded Heat Pumps for Low-Income Households
Two schemes in England can cover the entire cost of a heat pump installation rather than a fixed contribution. Both are means-tested, and both are worth checking before you apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, because they pay considerably more.
ECO4: Closing 31 December 2026
ECO4 is an obligation on energy suppliers to fund heating and insulation improvements for low-income, fuel-poor and vulnerable households. According to Ofgem, the scheme runs until 31 December 2026 following a nine-month extension.
Eligibility runs through two routes. The first is benefits-based: households claiming Universal Credit, Pension Guarantee Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Child Benefit or Housing Benefit may qualify. The second is LA Flex, where your local authority can declare a household eligible on broader grounds including low income or a health condition made worse by a cold home.
ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026. Heat pump installations take time to survey, schedule and commission, so if you think you qualify, start the application now rather than in the autumn. Applications go through your energy supplier or your local authority, not through installers directly.
Warm Homes: Local Grant, Worth Up to £30,000
The Warm Homes: Local Grant funds energy performance and low-carbon heating upgrades for low-income homes in England, delivered through local authorities. Government guidance sets two separate cost caps: £15,000 per home for energy performance measures and a further £15,000 per home for low-carbon heating, giving a combined ceiling of £30,000.
To qualify, your home must be in England, privately owned or privately rented, have an EPC rating between D and G, and the household must be on a low income. Eligible measures include insulation, solar panels and air source heat pumps where suitable, and occupants pay nothing towards the cost.
One detail matters when you apply. Local authorities can average the cost caps across all the homes in their project, so an individual property may receive more or less than £30,000 depending on what the scheme needs to deliver overall. Private landlords can have one property fully funded, after which a 50% contribution is required for further properties in the same portfolio.
Heat Pump Grants in Scotland
Scotland does not use the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Instead, Home Energy Scotland offers a grant of up to £7,500 towards a heat pump, plus an interest-free loan of up to £7,500 on top, according to Home Energy Scotland.
Households in remote rural areas, island communities and off-gas accessible rural areas qualify for a rural uplift of £1,500, which applies to both the heating and energy efficiency grants. Combined with energy efficiency funding, this takes the maximum grant support available to £18,000.
Two conditions are easy to miss. Only heat pumps that provide 100% of a property’s heating and hot water requirements are eligible for grant funding, so partial systems do not qualify. And if you are replacing an existing heat pump, you can access the interest-free loan but not the grant. Funding is allocated first-come, first-served and subject to availability, with funding offers valid for nine months once issued.
Heat Pump Grants in Wales
Welsh households have two routes. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers Wales as well as England, so the £7,500 and £9,000 rates apply. Separately, the Welsh Government’s Nest scheme provides free home energy improvements for eligible households.
GOV.WALES confirms Nest funds heat pumps, insulation and solar panels for eligible households, alongside free impartial energy advice available to anyone in Wales regardless of income. Where a property has no working heating or hot water, Nest may also fund a boiler or electric storage heater repair or replacement.
Nest does not publish a per-household cash cap or a fixed income threshold. Eligibility is assessed directly by the scheme, so the only reliable way to find out what you qualify for is to check with Nest rather than relying on figures quoted by installers.
Heat Pump Grants in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is not covered by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Support runs through the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme, funded by a levy on electricity bills and overseen by the Utility Regulator.
The Utility Regulator confirms the 2026/27 schemes became available on 1 April 2026, delivered by 11 scheme managers across three categories: priority whole house solutions covering heating and insulation, priority individual measures, and non-priority schemes. At least 80% of funding is reserved for vulnerable or priority customers, which includes households on means-tested benefits, people with a disability, and those aged over 60.
Grants are allocated first-come, first-served and demand is high, so some schemes carry waiting lists. Rates vary by scheme manager rather than being set centrally, so contact your electricity supplier or the NI Energy Advice line for what is currently open.
Can You Combine Heat Pump Grants?
Some grants stack and some cancel each other out. The rule that matters most is that a property which has already received government heating funding is excluded from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, so the order you apply in changes what you can claim.
- BUS plus 0% VAT: yes. VAT relief is automatic and applies alongside any grant
- BUS plus ECO4 on the same measure: no. ECO4 counts as government heating funding, which disqualifies the property from the BUS
- Home Energy Scotland grant plus interest-free loan: yes. These are designed to be taken together
- Warm Homes: Local Grant plus BUS: no, for the same reason as ECO4
- Any grant plus a separate insulation scheme: usually yes, because insulation is a different measure. Confirm with the scheme administrator first
The practical consequence: if there is any chance you qualify for ECO4 or the Warm Homes: Local Grant, check those first. Claiming £7,500 through the BUS closes the door on a fully funded installation worth several times more.
0% VAT on Heat Pumps Until March 2027
Air source and ground source heat pumps installed in residential property carry a zero rate of VAT, not the standard 20%. HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 confirms the zero rate applies to installations between 1 May 2023 and 31 March 2027, after which the rate returns to the reduced 5% band.
Since 1 February 2024, the zero rate also covers the groundworks needed to install ground and water source heat pumps. That matters for ground source installations, where trenching or borehole drilling can be a substantial share of the total cost.
Relief is applied by your installer at the point of invoicing, so there is nothing to claim. You do not need to do anything except check the quote shows 0% VAT. For a full breakdown of what installation actually costs before grants, see our air source heat pump cost guide, and our running costs guide for what it costs to operate afterwards.
How to Avoid Heat Pump Grant Scams
Grant schemes attract cold-callers, and heat pumps are a high-value purchase. One check filters out almost every scam: no legitimate Boiler Upgrade Scheme installation can happen without an MCS-certified installer, and you can verify certification independently in under a minute.
Verify any installer’s MCS certification number on the MCS website before signing anything. The certificate belongs to the company, not the salesperson, so ask for the company’s number and check it yourself rather than accepting a screenshot.
Treat these as red flags:
- Any request for an upfront fee to “secure” or “process” a grant. Grant applications are free and your installer submits them
- Cold calls claiming to be from the government or Ofgem. Neither contacts households directly to sell installations
- Pressure to sign today because “the scheme is closing”. Real deadlines are published on GOV.UK, not delivered by phone
- Quotes for air-to-air systems that reference the £7,500 grant. Air-to-air qualifies for £2,500, so the quote is wrong or deliberately misleading
- An installer who cannot give you an MCS number, or gives one that does not match their company name on the register
How We Researched This Guide
Every figure in this guide was verified in August 2026 against the primary source that administers each scheme: GOV.UK and Ofgem for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and ECO4, GOV.UK for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, Home Energy Scotland for Scottish funding, GOV.WALES for Nest, the Utility Regulator for NISEP, and HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 for the VAT position.
We do not source grant figures from installer websites or comparison sites, because scheme rates change without those pages being updated. Where a scheme does not publish a figure, such as the Nest cash cap or NISEP household rates, we say so rather than quoting a number we cannot stand behind. Grant rules change: check the linked government pages before committing to an installation.
Last updated: August 2026. Grant rates and eligibility criteria are set by government and can change at short notice.
