The £9,000 heat pump grant: what it means for gas engineers

From 21 July 2026, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £9,000 towards an air-source or ground-source heat pump in off-gas-grid homes currently heated by oil or LPG, in England and Wales. That's £1,500 more than the standard £7,500 grant, and the higher amount runs until 31 March 2027.

How much is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant now?

£9,000, but only for one slice of the market. Here's the shape of the change.

• The heat pump grant rises from £7,500 to £9,000, but only for off-gas-grid homes currently heated by oil or LPG.
• It covers air-to-water and ground-source heat pumps. Biomass boilers (£5,000) and air-to-air units (£2,500) are unchanged.
• It applies in England and Wales. Scotland runs its own support through Home Energy Scotland.
• It's a temporary uplift, for grants applied for from 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. Vouchers already issued stay at £7,500.

Who qualifies for the £9,000 heat pump grant?

The property has to be off the gas grid and currently heated by oil or LPG. The official messaging leads on oil homes, but LPG homes qualify too, which is worth knowing because plenty of LPG households assume schemes like this aren't for them. The usual Boiler Upgrade Scheme conditions still apply, including a valid EPC for the property. Homes on mains gas stay on the standard £7,500 grant, so nothing has been taken away from anyone; the extra £1,500 is aimed squarely at the most expensive-to-heat corner of the market.

How does the customer actually get the money?

They don't handle it at all, which surprises people. The installation must be carried out by an MCS-certified installer, who claims the grant and takes it straight off the price, so the customer sees a lower bill rather than a cheque. Practically, that means the first step for a qualifying household is getting quotes from MCS installers, and checking the property's EPC is in order before the conversation starts. Anyone waiting for a grant payment to land in their bank account has misunderstood how the scheme works.

What does the £9,000 grant mean for gas engineers?

Expect questions, mainly. Any customer in an off-grid oil or LPG home who's been putting off a decision now has a bigger reason to ask about a heat pump, and they'll ask the engineer they trust before they ask a stranger on the internet. It's also another nudge on the cross-training question. Installs under the scheme need MCS certification, not just Gas Safe registration, so the work sits with engineers who've made that move. Whether that's you is a business call, not a today call, but the grant makes that corner of the market a little bigger.

Should landlords with off-grid properties act now?

If you let a property heated by oil or LPG, this is the cheapest a heat pump swap has been under the scheme, and the window is short: the uplift ends on 31 March 2027. It won't suit every property, and a heat pump isn't automatically the right answer for every rating or budget either, but it's worth a conversation with an MCS installer well before the deadline, because installer diaries near the end of a time-limited scheme tend to fill.

Is the £9,000 grant a step towards banning gas boilers?

No. This is a grant, not a ban: gas boilers can still be installed, serviced and replaced everywhere, and the uplift doesn't even apply to homes on mains gas. It's aimed at oil and LPG households off the grid. If a customer reads the announcement as the beginning of the end for their gas boiler, the two-minute version of the actual policy picture usually settles it.