Boiler Upgrade Scheme after the Budget: is the £7,500 grant still available?

What the Budget changed

The grant a household can get is unchanged on GOV.UK’s “what you can get” page. The £7,500 air source and ground source grants are still listed, and the extra support for some off-gas homes still runs until March 2027.

What changed is future funding for the scheme, not the grant amount. Industry reporting of the 28 October 2026 Budget says the scheme will have funding of £400 million a year in 2027-28 rather than the planned £600 million. The planned £600 million for 2027/28 is the figure in the Warm Homes Plan on GOV.UK. The revised £400 million figure is from reporting by EIBI, not a figure we could find restated on GOV.UK when this page was checked. Reports disagree on the size of any wider cut, so this page does not quote one cut total as fact.

If you are deciding whether to apply, use the grant amounts on GOV.UK. Those are the sums an eligible installation can receive. Future funding affects how much money the scheme has in later years, not the £7,500 figure published today.

What you can get

You can get one grant per property. GOV.UK currently lists these grants:

• £7,500 towards an air source heat pump (sometimes called an air-to-water heat pump)
• £7,500 towards a ground source heat pump, including water source heat pumps and those on shared ground loops
• £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump
• £5,000 towards a biomass boiler

Until March 2027, you can get an additional £1,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump if both of these are true: the property is heated by oil or LPG, and it has no mains gas connection. That is up to £9,000 for those homes. It is not a single £9,000 grant, and it is not available on every heat pump. Air-to-air heat pumps and biomass boilers are not included in that extra £1,500.

There is no grant for a hybrid heat pump system, for example a gas boiler combined with an air source heat pump. The system also has to meet standards such as a minimum efficiency, and there are limits on its size. Your installer can explain those rules. You cannot get a grant to replace a heating system that is already low carbon.

England and Wales only

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open to people in England and Wales. You can use it for a home or for a building used for a business, if the rest of the rules are met.

If you live in Scotland, GOV.UK says you might be able to get an interest-free loan or a grant to make your home more energy efficient. The Warm Homes Loan factsheet also points to Home Energy Scotland grants, which may be used alongside that loan.

The Boiler Replacement Scheme in Northern Ireland is now closed. If you live in Northern Ireland, GOV.UK points you to energy saving grants in your area. The Warm Homes Loan, below, is separate and is available across the UK.

Who can apply

On the eligibility page, GOV.UK says you are eligible if both of these are true:

• You own the property you are applying for. That includes a business, a second home, or a property you rent out to tenants.
• You are replacing a fossil fuel heating system, such as oil, gas, electric or LPG.

You can still be eligible if you have already had funding to make the property more energy efficient, for example insulation. The installer must commission and install the heat pump within 120 days of applying for the grant.

You cannot get a grant for most new-build properties, for social housing, or for a property that has already been given government funding or support for a heat pump or biomass boiler. A new build the developer is still building is not eligible. If you move into a finished new build that has a fossil fuel boiler, you may be able to get a grant for a heat pump. Self-build properties have their own rules, set out on GOV.UK.

A biomass boiler grant has extra conditions. The property must be off the gas grid, in a rural location, and the boiler needs an emissions certificate. You cannot get a biomass grant for a self-build. This is a summary, not the full rulebook. Your installer confirms eligibility before anyone applies.

Combining the grant with a Warm Homes Loan

The Warm Homes Loan is a separate scheme. The government published the factsheet on 27 October 2026. Loans are available to households across the UK, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They are no-interest and low-interest loans for technology such as heat pumps, batteries and solar panels, so the upfront cost can be spread over time.

Ten lenders are offering loans at the start, some of them interest free, with up to 30 years to repay in some cases. The maximum loan the factsheet lists for heating includes up to £20,000 for an air-to-water heat pump, up to £35,000 for a ground source heat pump, up to £10,000 for an air-to-air heat pump once MCS certification is available, and up to £20,000 for a biomass boiler.

Homeowners can combine a loan with a grant of up to £9,000 through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and with Home Energy Scotland in Scotland. That reduces what you need to finance. It does not remove the lender’s checks. Look at the total you would repay, including how long the loan runs and any fees, not only the monthly payment. The Warm Homes Loan factsheet says installations other than heat network connections are carried out under MCS certification. MTEX’s own heat pump work is described in the next section.

Heat pumps, MCS and the grant

The grant is applied for through the installation’s MCS certification, not by filling in a householder form yourself. GOV.UK’s application steps are: get quotes, confirm you are eligible, agree a quote, then the application is made on the Ofgem website. The grant is taken off the amount you pay. That should appear on the quotation and invoice.

Ofgem says the heating system has to be installed and commissioned so the installation is certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). The certification has to cover the technology in the application. Ofgem also expects membership of an approved consumer code. Ofgem may contact you to confirm who is acting for you, and may visit to check the installation.

MTEX Services is qualified to install air source heat pumps. MTEX is not MCS-certified. MTEX installs the heat pump and works with an MCS umbrella scheme, which handles the MCS certification and the grant paperwork. The installation is MCS-certified and can be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant.

Gas Safe registered, no. 618835. For boiler or heat pump work, contact us and we will say plainly what we can do.

An illustrative look at running costs

This comparison is illustrative. It is not a quote, not a prediction of your bill, and not a promise that a heat pump will be cheaper or more expensive to run. It uses the Ofgem unit rates for 1 October to 31 December 2026 and two stated efficiency assumptions, so you can see the arithmetic.

On these assumptions the two are close: about 8.86p per kWh of heat from gas, and about 8.77p from the heat pump. For 10,000 kWh of heat, that is £885.56 against £877.33, before standing charges.

Change the heat pump assumption and the result moves. At a SCOP of 2.5 the same electricity rate is 10.53p per kWh of heat, which is more than the gas example. At a SCOP of 3.5 it is 7.52p, which is less. A time-of-use electricity tariff can also change the electricity cost. This table does not include one.

Standing charges still matter. Using 365 days, 54.83p a day is £200.13 a year, and 29.68p a day is £108.33 a year. A home that keeps a gas supply as well as electricity pays both. Rates also vary by region and by how you pay. The figures above are the Great Britain direct debit averages published by Ofgem.

The energy price cap, and why January figures are only forecasts

Ofgem has set the price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026. For a typical household using gas and electricity and paying by direct debit, it is £1,723 a year. That is £60, or 4%, above the previous figure of £1,663. Ofgem says gas bills are up 8%, and that most of the rise in the cap comes from gas. VAT has been removed from domestic electricity bills from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, which is why the electricity unit rate above does not include VAT. Gas still includes VAT at 5%.

The cap limits unit rates and standing charges on default tariffs. It is not a cap on your total bill. Use more energy and you pay more. Ofgem says around 35% of households are on fixed tariffs and are not affected by this rise. The unit rates used in the table come from Ofgem’s note of the October to December 2026 rates, and the £1,723 figure from its 26 August 2026 press release.

Ofgem says it will announce the cap for 1 January to 31 March 2027 by 25 November 2026. Until that announcement, there is no official January rate. Forecasts are only forecasts. EnergySwitch, reviewing forecasters’ own pages and last reviewed on 27 October 2026, reported a range from £1,999 (Cornwall Insight) to £2,192 (EDF) for a typical dual-fuel direct debit household. Those are not Ofgem figures, and they can change before 25 November. Do not treat a forecast as your January bill.

Can I get a grant for a new gas boiler?

No. You cannot get a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant for a new gas boiler. The scheme pays towards replacing fossil fuel heating — oil, gas, electric or LPG — with a heat pump or a biomass boiler. A hybrid system, such as a gas boiler kept alongside a heat pump, is not eligible either.

If a heat pump is not suitable and the boiler needs replacing, that is a normal boiler installation. It will not come with this grant. We can still quote for boiler work. Ask us, using the contact details already on this website.