The Boiler Upgrade Scheme — the government grant that pays part of the upfront cost when you replace a gas boiler with a heat pump — turned three years old in April 2026, and it came with a significant announcement: it’s been extended to 2030, with the grant amounts staying exactly where they are.
That’s £7,500 off an air source or ground source heat pump. £5,000 off a biomass boiler. Still administered by Ofgem. Still claimed through your installer, not directly by you.
If you’ve been putting off looking into this, here’s everything you need to know right now.
What the 2026 extension actually changed
The core scheme is unchanged: same grant amounts, same application process. But the April 2026 announcement (the V5 guidance, if you want to look it up) removed one of the requirements that had been quietly catching people out.
The EPC requirement — which previously said your home needed an Energy Performance Certificate before you could claim — has been scrapped. You no longer need a valid EPC to be eligible for the BUS. This was a meaningful barrier for older properties and those that hadn’t had an EPC done recently, so removing it should open the scheme up to a broader group of applicants.
Everything else is the same. The scheme still covers England, Wales, and Scotland (separate arrangements exist in Northern Ireland). It’s still open to domestic properties and some non-domestic buildings. And it’s still first-come, first-served within the scheme’s annual budget allocation — currently sitting at around £295m for the current financial year.
Who can apply
You can apply if:
- You own the property (freehold or leasehold). Landlords can apply too, though the property needs to be your main residence or a rental property you let out.
- The property currently has a gas boiler, oil boiler, electric storage heaters, or direct electric heating — essentially, you need to be replacing a fossil fuel or inefficient heating system, not adding supplementary heating.
- You’re installing an eligible heat pump or biomass boiler. The installer needs to be MCS-certified (Microgeneration Certification Scheme), and the specific product you’re installing must be on the approved products list.
You can’t apply if the property has already received a previous BUS grant, or if you’ve had a relevant renewable heating installation funded through certain earlier schemes.
One thing worth knowing: you can apply for BUS on a second home or a rental property, but not if you own fewer than three rental properties. Below that threshold, the scheme is for owner-occupied or larger landlord portfolios.
How the application actually works
The process is installer-led, which means you don’t have to do much of it yourself:
- You get quotes from MCS-certified installers. Most will ask about your current system, your property, and whether you’ve checked BUS eligibility.
- Your chosen installer applies to Ofgem for a voucher on your behalf before the installation happens. This step is often overlooked — the voucher has to be issued before the work starts, not claimed retrospectively.
- Ofgem issues the voucher, which locks in your grant for a set period (currently 3 months, with extensions available if the installation is delayed).
- The installer does the work and applies for the grant payment, which comes directly to them. They pass the saving on to you by reducing your invoice.
From your perspective, the £7,500 shows up as a line on your quote saying something like “Boiler Upgrade Scheme deduction: -£7,500.” You pay the remainder.
What it costs after the grant
Expectations need managing here. An air source heat pump installation in a typical UK semi-detached house runs somewhere between £10,000 and £15,000 including all the associated work — the heat pump unit, the installation labour, any pipework modifications, and usually a cylinder if you don’t have one. After the £7,500 grant, you’re typically looking at a net cost of £3,000 to £7,500.
That’s still a significant outlay, and whether it makes financial sense depends on a lot of factors specific to your property: your current energy use, the size of your home, whether you need to upgrade your radiators (many older homes do), and what you’re currently paying for gas.
A heat pump is not automatically cheaper to run than a gas boiler at current electricity and gas prices. The economics improve as the grid gets greener and as electricity price adjustments take effect. If you’re making a decision based on running costs alone, get a proper heat loss survey done first — it’ll tell you what size system you need and give you a realistic estimate of annual bills.
Finding an installer
The MCS installer search at mcscertified.com is the place to start. There are now over 4,000 certified heat pump installers in the UK, up significantly from two years ago, which means most people have several options within reasonable distance.
Get at least three quotes. Ask each one whether they’ve installed heat pumps in properties similar to yours, and specifically whether they’ve done a heat loss calculation (they should, it’s part of the installation standard). An installer who skips the heat loss survey is a red flag.
The scheme extension to 2030 means there’s no urgency to rush, but installation slots are still often booked out several weeks ahead. If you’re planning to get it done before winter, starting the process in late spring or early summer isn’t too early.