The £7,500 heat pump grant, explained properly
It comes off your quotation rather than arriving later, the installer applies for it, and both of the conditions that used to stop most applications have now gone.
What it actually is
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government grant towards replacing a fossil fuel heating system with a heat pump. For an air source heat pump it is £7,500.
The important part, and the part most people have wrong: you never receive the money. The installer applies, the grant is deducted from your quotation, and you pay the difference. There is no rebate to claim and no period of being out of pocket.
Rates and rules change. The air-to-air grant did not exist before April 2026, and the EPC requirement was removed in the same month. This page carries the date it was last checked at the top, and we re-check before every quotation.
Who can get it
Three things have to be true, and one that used to be on this list is not any more.
- The property is in England or Wales.
- You are replacing a fossil fuel system — gas, oil, LPG or electric storage heating. It is not for replacing an existing heat pump.
- You own the property — including a second home, or one you let.
Two conditions that no longer apply
The scheme used to require an EPC with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation. That stopped a great many applications, and it was removed in 2024. Then in April 2026 the EPC requirement itself was removed — there is now no EPC condition of any kind.
A great many pages still say otherwise, including some installers’. If anyone tells you that you must insulate, or produce an EPC, before you can claim, they are working from old rules.
Insulating first is still worth doing, for a reason that has nothing to do with the grant. A heat pump in an uninsulated house has to be bigger, runs at a higher flow temperature and costs more to run for its whole life. Insulate first and you usually get a smaller unit, fewer radiator changes and a lower quotation.
Insulation is also zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, and is the measure funded schemes are most likely to cover in full.
What you need in place
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| No EPC at all | The requirement was removed in April 2026 |
| An MCS certified installer | The grant only exists through one. Ours is NAP/68787/26/8 |
| A room-by-room heat loss calculation | Required for MCS certification, and it is what sizes the unit |
| Somewhere for a cylinder | Heat pumps and combi boilers do not mix |
What else the scheme pays
The £7,500 figure is for an air source heat pump, which is the common case. The scheme covers more than that:
| Measure | Grant |
|---|---|
| Air source heat pump (air-to-water) | £7,500 |
| Ground source or water source heat pump | £7,500 |
| Air-to-air heat pump | £2,500 — new, from April 2026 |
| Biomass boiler | £5,000, off the gas grid and rural only |
| Oil or LPG heated, no mains gas connection | Add £1,500 to March 2027, so £9,000 for a heat pump |
Two things are still outside it: hybrid systems, meaning a gas boiler working alongside a heat pump, and boilers of any other kind. It also cannot be used to replace a low carbon system you already have.
How the application runs
- We survey the property and do the heat loss calculation.
- We confirm which grant applies to your property, and the figure, before you commit to anything.
- You get a quotation with the grant already deducted.
- We make the application. You do not fill anything in.
- The installation is registered with MCS within ten working days of commissioning.
Sources. Scheme rates, eligibility and the closing date are as published by the UK government at the date shown at the top of this page. Rates and dates have changed before. We re-check before every quotation.