The £9,000 heat pump grant for homes off the gas grid

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme already paid £7,500 toward an air-to-water, ground source or water source heat pump. From 21 July 2026, Ofgem lists an additional, higher figure: £9,000 where the property is off the gas grid and eligible. It runs until 31 March 2027.

The logic is not hard to follow. Homes off the gas grid typically heat with oil or LPG — expensive, and exactly the systems the scheme exists to replace. They also tend to be older and more rural, where installation costs run higher. A bigger grant closes more of that gap.

When we checked on 28 July 2026, the GOV.UK consumer page “What you can get” still listed only £7,500, £5,000 and £2,500 — no mention of the £9,000. That page carried a last-updated date of 28 April 2026. Ofgem, which actually administers the scheme, had it published.

We are not scoring points: government sites are large and updates queue. But it is worth knowing that the consumer-facing page is not always the current one, and that anything copied from it will be behind too. When the numbers matter, Ofgem is the source that governs.

Read Ofgem’s wording closely, because each part narrows it:

• The technology. Air-to-water or ground source heat pumps. An air-to-air heat pump does not get the uplift — it stays at £2,500, residential only.
• The property. It must be an eligible off-gas-grid property. Ofgem does not spell out the full test on its scheme overview page — but it does publish it, in the installer guidance. We have set it out below, word for word.
• The window. 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. The grant is claimed through the voucher process, so the timing that matters is the installer’s application, not the day you decide.

When we first wrote this page we said Ofgem had not published the full test on its scheme overview page, and that we would not invent one. That was accurate, and it stayed unsatisfying. We have now found where the test lives — not on the overview page, but in Ofgem’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Installer Guidance V5.1, paragraphs 3.46 to 3.51. Here it is, quoted rather than paraphrased.

1. The property has to be off the gas grid — and Ofgem defines that narrowly. Paragraph 3.47: the property must not

• “be fuelled by mains gas (capped or clamped supply meter points are still considered as being fuelled by mains gas)”;
• “have any record of a gas meter point at the property (this means that the property must have no current record of an existing gas meter point, including capped or clamped connections)”;
• “be attached to a heat network”;
• “be a new-build property”.

That second bullet is the one that catches people. A gas supply you had disconnected years ago can still show as a meter point record.

2. The fuel you are replacing has to be oil or LPG. Paragraph 3.48: the previous heating system “must be fuelled by: oil; or, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)”. Nothing else qualifies for the uplift. Coal, a fossil-fuel hybrid, or electric heating in an off-gas-grid home does not get you to £9,000 — paragraph 3.46 is explicit that such properties “may still be eligible for a BUS grant of £7,500, provided all other eligibility criteria are met”.

3. Self-builds are excluded from the uplift. Paragraph 3.50: “Self-build properties are not eligible for the uplifted grant, however, they may still qualify for the £7,500 BUS grant”.

And one that widens it: paragraph 3.49 — “Both residential and non-residential properties may be eligible”. The uplift is not limited to homes.

Paragraph 3.51 closes the section: where those conditions are met, air-to-water and ground source heat pumps “may be eligible for the uplifted grant value”.

You no longer need an EPC. This changed on 28 April 2026 and a lot of pages still say otherwise. Installer Guidance V5.1, paragraph 3.40: “From 28 April 2026, properties are no longer required to have a valid EPC to apply for BUS. Property owners may still obtain an EPC before their installer applies to BUS, but this is no longer a requirement. However, where there is a valid EPC for the property, the certificate number must be provided.”

You do not have to be replacing a fossil fuel to get the standard grant. Paragraph 3.37 allows “an electric heating system that does not include a heat pump”, and names “storage heaters, electric panel radiators, and electric boilers”. Households on storage heaters often assume they are excluded. For the standard £7,500 they are not — though the £9,000 uplift still needs oil or LPG.

One hard stop, paragraph 3.38: “If the previous heating system includes a heat pump providing space heating, the property will not be eligible for BUS funding.” There is no second grant for replacing a heat pump with a better one.

Budget figures and application counts are still not here. We have seen numbers quoted, they disagree with each other, and we have not been able to settle them against a primary source.

How BUS interacts with other public funding was an open question here. It is now written up: Ofgem states the restriction in four separate places, each quoted in full with its paragraph number. They do not measure the same thing — one counts the appliance, one counts the property, one counts the installation — and which of them applies to you can change the answer. We have not pretended Ofgem settles it, because Ofgem does not.

• Check your fuel first. Oil, LPG or electric heating in a home with no mains gas connection is the profile this is aimed at.
• Get MCS quotes, and say the words. Ask installers directly whether they are applying at £7,500 or £9,000 for your property — the quote should show which.
• Mind the March 2027 date. Heat pump installations get booked out; a scheme that ends on a fixed date tends to get busy before it.

How the scheme works →   Check which grant applies to you →

• Ofgem — Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS): “£9,000 off the cost and installation of air-to-water or ground source heat pumps in eligible off-gas grid properties (available from 21 July 2026 until 31 March 2027)”.
• GOV.UK — What you can get: the standard grant values (page last updated 28 April 2026 when we checked).
• Ofgem — Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Installer Guidance V5.1 (PDF): paragraphs 3.36–3.40 and 3.46–3.51. This is where the eligibility detail actually lives. Read 2 August 2026.
• DESNZ — Notice of approved grant categories and values for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (from 21 July 2026): the statutory list of grant categories and values approved under Regulation 13, confirming £9,000 for air-to-water and ground source heat pumps in off-gas grid properties replacing oil or LPG. Read 2 August 2026.

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