Heat pump grant eligibility — who actually qualifies
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has fewer conditions than almost anyone expects. Here is the complete list — and the handful of exclusions that catch people out.
The five conditions for the £7,500 BUS grant
1. You own the property, in England or Wales. Owner-occupiers, landlords, and second-home owners all qualify. Small non-domestic buildings — shops, offices, surgeries, village halls — qualify too, provided the system stays within the 45 kWth capacity cap. Scotland has its own (more generous) scheme and Northern Ireland has no equivalent; the country guide covers both.
2. You are replacing a fossil fuel or direct electric system. Gas, oil, LPG, and solid fuel boilers all count, as do electric storage heaters and panel heaters. What does not count: replacing an existing heat pump, adding a heat pump alongside a working boiler (hybrids are excluded), or first-time heating in a new extension.
3. The property has a valid EPC. Issued within the last ten years. That is the entire energy-performance requirement — the old rule about clearing loft and cavity insulation recommendations was abolished in May 2024. If you have no EPC or an expired one, a £60–£120 assessment fixes it inside a week.
4. The new system is eligible technology. Air-to-water, ground source, or water source heat pumps up to 45 kWth, meeting minimum efficiency standards. Air-to-air units and hybrids are out; shared ground loops are explicitly in. Biomass boilers qualify for £5,000 only in rural off-gas properties.
5. An MCS-certified installer does the work. Non-negotiable — the installer makes the application, claims the voucher, and must deduct the grant from your price. No MCS, no money. Verification takes two minutes and our MCS guide shows you how.
What is deliberately absent from that list
No income test. No benefits requirement. No property value cap. No age-of-home rule. No requirement to install solar, smart meters, or anything else alongside. The BUS was built as a mass-market scheme for ordinary homeowners, and its eligibility reflects that. If you own a fossil-fuel-heated home in England or Wales with a current EPC, the default assumption is that you qualify — the question worth your time is not "can I get the grant?" but "what will I pay after it?", which our air source and ground source cost pages answer with real numbers.
The exclusions that genuinely catch people
New-build buyers. Homes bought from a developer are excluded — building regs already steer new homes to low-carbon heating. Self-builders are the exception and can claim, provided the home has never had government-funded heating support.
Hybrid hopefuls. Keeping the gas boiler "for backup" disqualifies the installation. The scheme funds full replacements only — a deliberate design choice, since hybrids keep homes on the gas grid.
Properties that already took public heating money. One voucher per property, and prior government funding for the same measure blocks a claim. This includes stacking attempts with ECO4 — pick the better scheme, don't try both.
Flats without an outdoor unit location. Not an eligibility rule but a physics one: an ASHP needs somewhere for the outdoor unit, with freeholder consent where leasehold applies. Shared ground loop projects are emerging as the answer for blocks, and they qualify for the full £7,500 per dwelling.
Qualify? Here is the order of operations
Check your EPC exists and is current. Get two or three quotes from MCS-certified installers, each showing the £7,500 deduction. Accept one; the installer applies via Ofgem and the official route at gov.uk; you confirm consent when Ofgem emails. The BUS page walks the full sequence. Or skip the homework: our two-minute checker confirms which scheme fits your property and what you would pay after the grant.