On 21 July 2026 the approved grant categories and values for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme changed. Most of what is written about the scheme still says £7,500 and stops there.
Published 13 August 2026
The grant comes off the quote before you pay it: an installer registered with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme applies for it and deducts it, so you never handle the money. That makes the grant value a direct line in your budget rather than something you claim back later, which is why a change in the rates is worth more than a footnote.
Four technologies carry a grant. An air source or ground source heat pump is £7,500, rising to £9,000 off the gas grid where what comes out runs on oil or LPG. An air-to-air heat pump is £2,500 either way. A biomass boiler is £5,000, off the gas grid and rural only. The grants page linked below prints the full table with the condition on each row.
Three lines make up the change, and the grants page sets them out against the notice they come from. Two are new money: air-to-air became a category in its own right at £2,500, and off the gas grid an air source or ground source pump replacing oil or LPG gained £1,500, an uplift running until March 2027.
The last line is the one most articles miss, because nothing moved there at all. On the gas grid, replacing a gas boiler with an air source heat pump, the figure is still £7,500. A rate rise you read about is not a rate rise you can have, and here the difference is the gas main in the street.
An air-to-air heat pump is the type that heats and cools, the same box people shop for in a hot July. Two separate rules point the same way, and they are worth seeing together before you buy.
So the reversible unit that qualifies for the grant is also the one that can sit inside permitted development, and the cooling-only unit gets neither. Which one you are being quoted is a question for the quote, not for after the installation.
The conditions stayed where they were, and that is worth saying: an article that puts a new hurdle next to the new rates is describing a scheme that does not exist. You still own the property, you are still replacing a fossil fuel system, and the certified installer still applies on your behalf inside a deadline. The grants page sets out all four conditions with the exclusions beside them.
The eligibility guidance sets no EPC rating condition and does not ask you to clear outstanding loft or cavity insulation recommendations first. That condition is repeated so widely that installers get asked about it, so it is worth knowing where it is not. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open to people in England and Wales. Scotland runs its own support, where an interest free loan or a grant may be available, and the Boiler Replacement Scheme in Northern Ireland has closed.
I would rather publish the expiry date than the confidence. Every figure above carries the date I checked it on gov.uk, and the grants page is where they get corrected first.
All four schemes side by side, including the two that are closing and the one that has already closed.
What the grant does to the sums when you put the two systems next to each other.
What an air-to-air system costs to install and to run, and the planning conditions for the outdoor unit.