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The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published its Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics for September 2026 on 29 October 2026. The scheme gives a grant towards replacing fossil fuel heating with a heat pump or, in some rural buildings, a biomass boiler, in England and Wales. The main points:

  • 9,738 applications in September, the most in any month since the scheme opened in May 2022: 30% up on August (7,486) and 138% up on September 2025 (4,089).
  • Vouchers issued, installations submitted and grants paid (3,332) were all records too. 96,611 grants have now been paid in all.
  • Since July, properties heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas have been able to get £9,000 towards an air source or ground source heat pump. That accounted for 8,107 of the 25,374 applications from July to September, about a third.
  • The median cost of an air source heat pump installed in July to September was £12,826 before the grant, 14% lower than in the scheme's first year after inflation. A ground source system's median was £34,630.
  • Just 609 of the 96,611 grants paid (0.6%) were for non-domestic buildings. The scheme's budget is £400 million for 2026-27.

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The grant is open to business buildings, and few use it. GOV.UK says the grant can be used to replace the heating in a building used for your business, as long as you own it. That covers many small offices, shops, workshops, surgeries and village halls with a boiler of domestic size. The cap is 45 kWth for a single heat pump (70 kWth for several together), so larger buildings fall outside it.

Off-gas buildings get the most. If your building is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection, you may get £9,000 towards an air source or ground source heat pump until March 2027, rather than £7,500. These are also the buildings where the carbon saving is largest, because heating oil and LPG emit more per kWh than mains gas.

Demand is rising fast. Grants are first come, first served until each year's budget runs out, and installers' order books are filling. If a boiler is near the end of its life, start the conversation before it fails.

A worked example: a rural workshop on heating oil

Take an illustrative rural workshop and office that burns 30,000 kWh of heating oil a year in an 85% efficient boiler, and replaces it with an air source heat pump with a seasonal efficiency of 3 delivering the same heat.

  • Today: 30,000 kWh of burning oil at 0.24677 kg CO2e per kWh is 7.40 tonnes CO2e (Scope 1).
  • Heat pump: 25,500 kWh of heat at a seasonal efficiency of 3 needs 8,500 kWh of electricity. At 0.13096 kg CO2e per kWh that is 1.11 tonnes CO2e (Scope 2).
  • A cut of about 85% in heating emissions, before any solar or green tariff.
  • At the median installed cost of £12,826, a £9,000 grant would leave about £3,826 to pay, if the building qualifies. A workshop needing a bigger system will cost more, so get a quote for your building.

Figures use the 2026 government conversion factors, the same ones a SECR report or a Carbon Reduction Plan would use.

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  1. Check whether you may qualify. Read the conditions on GOV.UK: you must own the building, be in England or Wales, and be replacing fossil fuel heating. Your installer confirms the rest.
  2. Find an MCS-certified installer. The installer applies for the voucher on your behalf and must fit the system within the voucher's validity.
  3. Measure before you switch. Note a full year of oil, LPG or gas use first, so you can show the saving in your next report and explain why Scope 1 fell and Scope 2 rose.
  4. Off-gas? Mind the date. The extra £1,500 for oil and LPG buildings runs until March 2027.