Households can now get a £7,500 Government grant to install a heat pump, up from £6,000 previously.
The Government claims the grant boost means it is now cheaper to install a heat pump than a gas boiler. The scheme has also been extended by three years to 2028.
A heat pump captures heat from outside and moves it into your home. It uses electricity to do this, but the heat energy delivered to your home is much more than the electrical energy used to power the system.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme now offers £7,500 towards the cost of a new heat pump. Government estimates place the typical cost of buying and installing a gas boiler at between £2,500 and £3,000 when taking advantage of both the grant and additional discounts offered by energy suppliers.
Ground source heat pump grants have risen from £6,000 to £7,500, while households can still access £5,000 grants for biomass boilers.
The increased grants form part of the Government’s “pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to reaching net zero”.
The Government is also making £10m available through the Heat Pump Ready programme to support innovation in the heat pump sector to cut installation costs even further.
It has also launched the Welcome Home to Energy Efficiency campaign to help people improve the energy efficiency of their home and lower their bills over the winter.
Claire Coutinho, energy security secretary, said: “No one should have to choose between cutting costs and cutting emissions, our pragmatic approach means we can continue to deliver on our ambitious net zero targets without unfairly hitting the pockets of hardworking families.
“From today, for some households starting prices for heat pumps could now be below the average gas boiler, as we have increased the cash grant by 50% to £7,500 – making our scheme one of the most generous in Europe.
“This will help thousands of people across the country reduce their energy use and keep their homes warm.”
How to get a heat pump grant
Households can check their home is eligible for a heat pump grant on gov.uk.
Anyone interested first needs to agree a quote for the work with an MCS-certified installer, who will then do all the paperwork. Ofgem will then contact the customer to confirm they would like to proceed.
Organisations can apply for a share of the latest round of the Heat Pump Ready programme, which will support innovation projects that will make heat pumps cheaper, quicker or easier to install.
Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance, said: “Making our housing stock more energy efficient not only furthers our net zero ambitions but enables families to cut their energy use and reduce their bills.
“Welcome Home to Energy Efficiency will help people identify measures that will work for them, and in turn create street upon street of warmer homes.”
Boiler ban delay
The Government is also delaying the ban on installing oil and liquified petroleum gas boilers, and new coal heating, for off-gas-grid homes to 2035, instead of phasing them out from 2026.
Some of these homes are not suitable for heat pumps, so this ensures homeowners are not having to spend £10,000 to £15,000 on upgrading their homes in just three years’ time.
The Government has also set an exemption to the phase out of fossil fuel boilers, including gas, in 2035, so that households will not have to switch to a heat pump if their home is not suitable.
