- Boiler upgrade scheme to get multi-million pound boost next year
More homes will receive heat pump grants worth up to £7,500 as the Government has added more cash to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).
It is also cutting red tape around green devices, including removing a rule requiring planning permission to install a heat pump within one meter of someone else’s property.
The BUS provides grants of up to £7,500 to households to install a heat pump in their property, with the aim of encouraging the uptake of greener heating technologies.
The Government announced today that it will provide an additional £30 million in this financial year and will double the BUS to £295 million in 2024/25.
The extra money means an extra 4,000 households will benefit from a reduced-price heat pump this year, assuming they each get the full £7,500.
However, demand for heat pumps has always lagged behind funding the scheme since its launch in 2022.
The BUS paid £88.8 million in 2023/24, against a budget of £150 million, while in 2022/23 the BUS paid £51 million.
Pump it up: The government is adding huge sums of money to a scheme to encourage the use of heat pumps
The Government is also eliminating the red tape that deterred many households from purchasing a heat pump.
This includes calming rules that aim to limit the effects of heat pump noise.
The current system includes a notorious “meter rule” which states that if a home installs a heat pump within one meter of another property boundary, then it needs a building permit.
The Government is planning to remove this requirement, and the Conservative administration also removed the previous need for homes to have loft or cavity wall insulation before applying for a BUS grant.
The changes to the BUS are part of the Government’s wider Warm Homes Plan, which aims to improve the properties of low-income homeowners and private renters in homes with EPC grades of D to G to at least C.
The scheme currently includes plans to provide grants of £15,000 per home for heat pumps and £15,000 for better insulation, but with few other details.
The Warm Homes Plan would see an investment of £3.2bn between 2025 and 2026, helping up to 300,000 homes, the Government announced today.
Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, said: “More than a third of customers who order a heat pump drop out due to planning issues, leaving them stuck with dirty, inefficient gas boilers.” Removing outdated and unnecessary bureaucracy is an urgent priority to grow this sector and bring clean, safe and low-cost heating technology to British homes.
Stew Horne, head of policy at the Energy Saving Trust, said: “This package of announcements provides welcome details on how the UK Government will practically support people to install low-carbon heating and incentivize the supply chain to meet the demand.”
“We welcome the removal of a key barrier to the installation of heat pumps and the confirmation of additional funding for the Boiler Improvement Scheme.”
