If you’re weighing up a heat pump, grant funding is very often the thing that tips the decision – and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is the main one on offer for homes in England and Wales.
Our Boiler Upgrade Scheme Guide covers the essential information you need – and when you are ready, as your local experts and installers of hundreds of heat pumps throughout Cornwall, we are here to help upgrade your boiler to an air or ground source heat pump!
What the scheme covers
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides a £7,500 grant towards the cost of installing an air source or ground source heat pump, taken straight off your invoice by an MCS-certified installer. There’s no income test, so it’s open to any homeowner – you simply need to be replacing an existing fossil fuel or electric heating system.
Heated by oil or LPG? There’s even better news
Over 130,000 homes in Cornwall are currently heated by oil or LPG. The great news for you, is that you can claim an increased grant of £9,000 – a temporary uplift to the BUS uplift running until the end of March 2027. Homes on mains gas continue to receive the standard £7,500.
VAT free
When you upgrade your heating system to a heat pump, the savings do not stop at the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant. Thanks to a temporary tax relief scheme running until 31 March 2027, the installation of eco-friendly heating systems is also completely VAT-free. This means you will pay 0% VAT on both the heat pump itself and the cost of labour, provided your MCS-certified installer handles both the supply and the installation – which of course at ATG we will do for you. This tax relief can even apply to essential ancillary upgrades completed at the same time, such as larger radiators or new pipework and controls for the system, giving you a major extra discount on top of your government grant.
Who qualifies
You’ll need to own the property, live in England or Wales, and be replacing an existing fossil fuel or electric heating system (not another low-carbon system), and use an MCS-certified installer – like ATG. New-build homes generally aren’t eligible, though self-build properties can be.
What it means in practice
For many households, the grant brings a heat pump installation down to a cost broadly comparable to a premium boiler replacement – and for oil and LPG homes claiming the increased grant until March, the gap narrows further still.
Scheme rules and grant levels do shift over time, so it’s always worth checking the current position before committing. If you’d like to know where you stand – including whether the increased grant applies to your property – get in touch with the team at ATG Plumbing & Heating for a free, no-obligation survey.
