What is the same everywhere
The scheme does not treat inner and outer London differently, and no postcode changes the amount: £7,500 for an air-to-water or ground source heat pump (air-to-air is £2,500), or £9,000 for a home with no mains gas replacing oil or LPG. In a city where 86.9% of grant-funded installations replaced mains gas, the standard band is the one most readers will meet. The full rules are in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme guide, and the installer applies on your behalf.
Take-up in London
London had 5,419 grants paid for installations by the end of September 2026, 5.6% of the England and Wales total, with the lowest rate in England: 14.6 per 10,000 households against 37.4 nationally. Voucher applications are 26.5 per 10,000 households. Both rates are domestic-only figures against ONS household counts, so they are not the grant count divided by households. The statistics do not break property type down by region, so we cannot say how much of the gap is down to flats, rented homes, plot size or something else.
August 2026 applications were 425 against 213 a year earlier, up 100% against 117% for England. The period includes the first weeks of the £9,000 off-gas band, which DESNZ does not split by region. The region took 938 applications across July and August. Of the grants paid, 5,383 were for air-to-water heat pumps and 36 for ground source systems.
| Measure | London | England | DESNZ table |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grants paid for installations | 5,419 | 91,463 | 1.2A |
| Grants paid per 10,000 households | 14.6 (rank 9 of 9) | 37.4 | 1.2B |
| Voucher applications per 10,000 households | 26.5 | 56.1 | 1.2B |
| Applications received, July and August 2026 | 938 | 14,517 | M1.2 |
| Applications in August 2026 against August 2025 | 425 against 213 (up 100%) | 6,966 against 3,215 (up 117%) | M1.2 |
| Ground source grants paid (including shared loops) | 36 | 1,517 | 1.2A |
Source: DESNZ, Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics: September 2026 (published 29 October 2026; read 31 October 2026). Grant counts are all redemptions (Table 1.2A); per-10,000 rates are domestic grants against ONS 2025 household counts (Table 1.2B), so one cannot be derived from the other. DESNZ cautions that the number and types of eligible property differ by region, which affects volumes and the technology mix.
What homes are replacing
Here the data needs care. DESNZ’s 2024 estimate puts 20.0% of London properties as not connected to the gas network, similar to the East of England. DESNZ calculates that by subtracting domestic gas meters from the count of properties, with no definitive source, and does not say why homes lack a meter, so the figure may include homes without gas for reasons other than no pipe in the street. Its own sheet splits London unevenly: 26.6% for Inner London and 14.9% for Outer London (DESNZ, 2024).
The scheme’s own data sits oddly against that estimate. Of grant-funded installations in London over four financial years, 86.9% replaced mains gas, 0.9% oil and 0.1% LPG. The scheme does not use the DESNZ estimate either. For the £9,000 band the property must have no record of a gas meter point, and the installer supplies evidence such as an EPC or fuel bills for Ofgem to assess (Ofgem BUS guidance v5.1). In practice almost all London grant-funded installs so far (99%) replaced something other than oil or LPG, so the £9,000 band is unlikely to apply to most London homes.
| Fuel replaced | London (n = 4,379) | England (n = 75,946) |
|---|---|---|
| Mains gas | 86.9% | 56.2% |
| Oil | 0.9% (rank 9 of 9) | 16.6% |
| Direct electric | 5.7% | 9.2% |
| LPG | 0.1% | 2.8% |
| No previous heating system | 6.1% | 13.4% |
| Homes without a gas connection, DESNZ estimate for 2024 | 20.0% (about 762,000 of 3,815,000 properties) | 15.6% |
Fuel shares: DESNZ Table A1.9, summed over four financial years (coal, other and unknown fuels not shown). Final row: DESNZ Subnational estimates of properties not connected to the gas network (published 18 December 2025; read 8 October 2026), which subtracts domestic gas meters from the property count. It is an estimate of properties without a gas meter, not the scheme’s eligibility test, which is applied to your property by Ofgem on the installer’s evidence.
Inside the region
London is reported by borough in the DESNZ tables. Bromley has the highest count to June 2026, followed by Lewisham, Croydon and Barnet. The City of London and some smaller boroughs show very low numbers.
- Bromley: 333 heat pump grants paid to June 2026
- Lewisham: 248 heat pump grants paid to June 2026
- Croydon: 241 heat pump grants paid to June 2026
- Barnet: 234 heat pump grants paid to June 2026
Source: DESNZ Table Q1.2, heat pump grants paid by county or unitary authority (London boroughs), May 2022 to June 2026. DESNZ suppresses counts below five.
Council-led help in London
London’s council-led help is largely led centrally. GOV.UK’s Warm Homes: Local Grant list, updated 2 July 2026, shows the Greater London Authority leading a consortium of thirty-one listed councils with funding of £53,470,024, plus Barking and Dagenham as a separate lead. Croydon appears in the list under the Portsmouth-led consortium instead, which is an unusual detail if you live there.
The grant is aimed at low-income households in privately owned or privately rented homes with an EPC rating of D to G. Ask the GLA or your borough how applications are made. The lead authorities for London are:
- Greater London Authority (with 31 listed councils)
- Barking and Dagenham
Source: GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant: successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026; read 8 October 2026). The list has no regional field, so the grouping is ours. Being a lead authority does not tell you whether a council has money left or whether you qualify. GOV.UK says the grant is for low-income households in private homes in England with an EPC of D to G, and that air source heat pumps are eligible if suitable. See other heat pump funding for what combines with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Your grid operator
London has more than one network operator. UK Power Networks says it owns the network across London, the South East and the East of England, with London Power Networks as one of its licence companies. SSEN Distribution’s southern England licence area, in its DFES 2024 report (prepared by Regen), runs east as far as Ealing and Chiswick, so parts of west London are on a different operator’s network. The ENA postcode lookup is the way to confirm which applies to your address.
If you live in a flat or terrace, the flats and terraces guide covers siting, leasehold consent and planning, which can matter as much as the grant for flats and terraces.
The installer normally handles notification to the operator (MCS, Notifying DNOs; read 8 October 2026): ask which route applies to your home and who submits the form.
Heat pump cost in London
DESNZ does not publish an installed-cost median by region, so there is no official London price. The national median for a grant-funded air source heat pump was £12,826 in 2026 Q3, including the grant value, which leaves about £5,326 after the £7,500 grant. Treat that as a national starting point, not a London figure. What moves a London quote is mostly the building:
- Flats. Under Class G permitted development, an outdoor unit on a block of flats is limited to 0.6 cubic metres, and only one unit is allowed. Upper-floor positions usually need the freeholder’s consent, and some need a planning application.
- Conservation areas. A unit cannot go on a wall or roof that faces a highway in a conservation area under permitted development, which can push it to the rear and lengthen the pipe run.
- Neighbours. Close neighbours make the MCS noise calculation the first test of a position; see heat pump noise.
- No uplift to offset it. With 1.0% of London installs replacing oil or LPG, the £9,000 band rarely changes the sum here, so the standard £7,500 is the figure to plan on.
For the line items behind a quote, see heat pump installation cost, or put your own figures into the heat pump cost calculator. If you want to ask us about a London quote, use the form below.
Ask about a heat pump quote in London
Tell us the home, what heats it now and where you are with quotes. Your enquiry comes to SEO-DONS LTD, the publisher of this guide, and we reply by email. We are not an installer, Ofgem or the government, and there is no charge.
What to ask for locally
- Ask the installer how the outdoor unit will be sited and whether permitted development applies. Planning and leasehold questions can matter as much as the grant for flats and terraces. The planning guide sets out the rules.
- If you are in a leasehold flat, get the freeholder’s position before paying a survey deposit.
- Ask your borough or the GLA route whether the Warm Homes: Local Grant is open to you if you are on a low income.
- Ask the installer for examples of work in homes like yours, and for the MCS number to check it yourself.
See how to compare heat pump quotes, are you eligible? and heat pump installation cost. Other regions are on the regions hub; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different schemes (by country).
What this page does not tell you
These are regional statistics. Your enquiry comes to SEO-DONS LTD, the publisher of this guide, and we reply by email. We have not used regional temperature, housing-age or planning data because we did not source it for this page. Nothing here is a quote or a promise of funding.