How Much Is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme Worth in 2026?

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme still pays £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump in England and Wales, or £5,000 for biomass. From 21 July 2026, that rises to £9,000 if you're replacing oil or LPG heating. A £2,500 air-to-air tier exists on paper — but almost nobody has been paid it yet.

How much is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme actually worth right now?

It depends on your fuel type and your heating technology, not your income or your property's value. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) provides £7,500 towards the cost of an air-source heat pump (ASHP) or ground source heat pump (GSHP) installation, or £5,000 towards the cost of a biomass boiler. The grant for air-source heat pumps has increased to £9,000 for households using oil or liquified petroleum gas (LPG) – effective from 21 July 2026. Mains gas and electric heating switches stay on the standard rate. There's no income test attached to any of these figures — the grant is a flat, per-property amount, whether you're in a two-bed terrace or a detached farmhouse.

Why did oil and LPG homes suddenly get a bigger grant?

Because off-grid heating is the most expensive and hardest to decarbonise, and ministers wanted a sharper incentive. For the roughly 1.7 million households in England and Wales that rely on oil or LPG for heating – most of them in rural, off-gas-grid areas – the headline change is the bigger grant. The Ofgem guidance that administers the scheme confirms the uplift is live rather than just announced: from 21 July 2026, uplifted grant values are available to eligible off-gas grid properties, with updated guidance applying to applications properly made on or after that date. It's temporary — the extra £1,500 is a time-limited top-up on the standard £7,500, not a permanent rate change, so it's worth checking the live guidance before you commit if your install date is flexible.

Do I still need an EPC before I can apply?

No — this is one of the genuinely big changes in 2026. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 came into force on 28 April 2026, with Ofgem publishing updated Guidance for Installers that applies to applications made from that date. Among the changes: relaxed EPC requirements, allowing alternative evidence where no valid EPC exists. Previously, a stalled or missing EPC could hold an application up for weeks. That barrier is gone for new applications, though your installer will still need to show the property's fuel type and existing heating system some other way if there's no certificate on file. If you already have a valid EPC, your installer will still submit it — the change only removes it as a hard blocker.

Can I actually get the £2,500 air-to-air heat pump grant yet?

Technically yes, practically almost nobody has. This is the part most guides gloss over. There has been no receipt of air conditioning grants under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme since it was announced in November last year, according to government figures — only 62 people have applied for the £2,500 vouchers for air-to-air heat pumps since they were made available, and so far none have been issued. The scale of the missed opportunity is significant: the government's Boiler Upgrade Scheme could support almost a million air-to-air heat pumps with existing budget by 2030 – but only 45 vouchers have been claimed so far. The holdup isn't homeowner apathy. Documentation relating to accreditation of installations under the BUS from the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and UK Accreditation Service is still outstanding. Until that paperwork clears, installers can apply for a voucher but can't legally install and claim it. If a salesperson tells you air-to-air installation can happen today, ask them to show you a completed, redeemed voucher first.

Who's allowed to install a BUS-funded heat pump?

Only an MCS-certified installer, and increasingly one that also carries specific consumer protection cover. You must ensure your installer is certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), and they also need to be a member of an approved consumer code such as the Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC) or HIES Consumer Code. That second requirement is shifting: once the MCS Customer Commitment is approved, installers would need either the Customer Commitment or Consumer Code membership to deliver installations under the BUS. Until that approval lands, installers delivering installations under the BUS need to retain Consumer Code membership in the short term. Practically, this means asking any installer for their MCS certificate number and their consumer code membership before you sign anything — both should be checkable on the MCS and RECC/HIES websites, not just taken on trust from a company brochure.

How does the £7,500 actually get paid — do I see the cash?

No — you never touch the grant money directly. The scheme is installer-claimed, not homeowner-claimed. Your MCS-certified installer applies on your behalf, deducts the grant from your invoice as an upfront discount, and recovers the money from Ofgem after the work is done, so your role is simply to choose the installer and give consent for the application. In practice that means the number on your final invoice should already show the grant subtracted — if a quote shows the full pre-grant price with a promise to "sort the grant later," that's worth querying before you commit, since the deduction is meant to happen at quote stage, not as a rebate afterwards.