The £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme Explained (2026)

What the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is the UK Government’s grant for replacing fossil fuel heating with a heat pump. It’s worth £7,500 towards an air source heat pump — and £9,000 if your home is currently heated by oil or LPG. It’s a grant, not a loan: there is nothing to repay, ever.

Who qualifies

The rules are simpler than most people expect:

• You own the property (homes and some small non-domestic buildings qualify)
• You’re replacing a fossil fuel system — gas, oil or LPG — or direct electric heating
• The property has a valid EPC (issues like missing loft insulation flagged on it no longer block the grant in most cases)
• The heat pump and installer are MCS certified

New-build properties generally don’t qualify, with self-builds the main exception.

How you actually receive it

You don’t. This is the part people find hardest to believe: the installer claims the grant, and you just pay the after-grant price. As MCS certified installers we apply on your behalf, the voucher is issued against your installation, and the £7,500 (or £9,000) comes straight off your invoice. There’s no application marathon, no waiting for a rebate.

Why oil and LPG homes get more

Homes off the gas grid pay the most for heating, so the scheme pays them the larger amount — £9,000. These are also the homes where heat pumps make the most dramatic difference: swapping oil at current prices for a system running at 250–500% efficiency (SCOP, averaged over the year) typically produces the biggest bill reductions we see.

The catch (there’s always one)

The grant only makes a well-designed installation cheap. The heat pump still needs to be sized from a proper room-by-room heat loss survey, and some homes need radiator upgrades to run efficiently. A good installer includes all of this in the fixed after-grant price; a bad one leaves it out and lets you find out in January.

What to do next

Check your EPC exists, then book a heat loss survey. The grant needs no action from you beyond choosing an MCS certified installer — which, for the avoidance of doubt, is the only kind we know how to be.