The heat pump grant, explained honestly

In England and Wales the scheme's published grants are £7,500 towards an air source heat pump, £7,500 towards a ground source heat pump (including water source and shared ground loops), £5,000 towards a biomass boiler and £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump, one grant per property. You never receive this as cash: an MCS certified installer applies for the voucher on your behalf and the value is taken off your quotation and invoice.

The administrator lists a higher grant of £9,000 off the cost and installation of air-to-water or ground source heat pumps in eligible off-gas-grid properties, available from 21 July 2026 until 31 March 2027, claimed the same way: by the MCS certified installer, off your invoice.

The scheme is installer-led. Installers who are MCS certified apply for and redeem the vouchers on behalf of property owners, on the Ofgem website. You confirm your consent to Ofgem within 14 calendar days of being contacted, and whether a voucher is issued when your installer applies is Ofgem's decision at that time.

You must own the property (including a business property, a second home, or a property you rent out to tenants) and be replacing a fossil fuel heating system such as oil, gas, LPG, or an electric one. The new system must be capable of meeting the property's full space heating and hot water needs, with a maximum capacity of 45kWth for an individual system.

No grant is available for a hybrid heat pump system (for example a gas boiler combined with an air source heat pump), for replacing a heating system that is already low carbon, for most new build properties, for social housing, or for a property already given government funding for a heat pump or biomass boiler.

A biomass boiler grant additionally requires the property to be off the gas grid and in a rural location, and the boiler to have an emissions certificate showing polluting emissions are kept to a minimum.

Under the Regulations, a voucher expires three months after issue (six months for a ground source heat pump), and no voucher may be issued after 31 December 2029 following the 2026 amendment. The guidance adds that the installer must commission and install within 120 days of applying. Separately, 0% VAT applies to heat pump installation until 31 March 2027.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is England and Wales only. In Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan offers homeowners grant funding of up to £7,500 for heating systems such as heat pumps, with an additional £7,500 available as an optional interest-free loan, and a £1,500 uplift for rural and island homes, funded by the Scottish Government. It requires an MCS installer, covers your only or primary residence, and does not fund hybrid heat pumps. Funding agreements are valid for nine months.

Northern Ireland has no Boiler Upgrade Scheme equivalent: the official guidance says the Boiler Replacement Scheme there is now closed, and the Housing Executive's current Affordable Warmth Scheme is an income-targeted energy efficiency scheme (household income under £23,000) whose funded measures do not include heat pumps. We found no official page stating a heat pump grant for Northern Ireland.