£9,000 Heat Pump Grant: What Oil and LPG Homeowners Need to Know Before 21 July 2026

By Lucy Mason, Emergency Hero

From 21 July 2026, homes off the gas grid and heated by oil or LPG can claim £9,000 towards an air source or ground source heat pump through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. That's £1,500 above the £7,500 available to everyone else, and it only runs until 31 March 2027.

Around 1.7 million households in England and Wales heat their homes with oil or LPG. Most are rural, most sit in older properties, and none of them are protected by an energy price cap. If your oil boiler is heading into what looks like its last winter, the next eight months are the cheapest window you'll get to replace it.

Here's the part the other coverage leaves out. The grant is worth having, and it will do nothing for you in the weeks between deciding to switch and having a working heat pump. That's where the real money gets lost, and I'll come back to it.

What's changing in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on 21 July 2026

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government grant administered by Ofgem. It's installer-led: your MCS-certified installer applies on your behalf and takes the money off your quote before you pay anything, so you're never out of pocket waiting for a refund.

From 21 July, an eligible off-gas-grid property replacing oil or LPG heating with an air-to-water or ground source heat pump can claim £9,000. Standard installations stay at £7,500. Biomass boilers remain at £5,000 and air-to-air heat pumps at £2,500, and neither qualifies for the uplift. Ofgem publishes the current values on its Boiler Upgrade Scheme page for property owners.

The £9,000 is narrower than headlines suggest. It applies where the property sits off the gas grid, runs on oil or LPG today, and is having an air-to-water or ground source heat pump fitted by an installer certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme.

One barrier has gone. A valid EPC is no longer a precondition, and where a property doesn't have one the installer can supply alternative evidence instead. Outstanding loft or cavity wall insulation recommendations no longer block an application either. That opens the scheme up to a lot of older rural housing stock that was locked out of it before.

Who qualifies for the £9,000 oil and LPG heat pump grant

The property must be in England or Wales, off the gas grid, currently heated by oil or LPG, and fitted with an eligible air-to-water or ground source heat pump by an MCS-certified installer. You need to own it. That includes second homes and properties you rent out, so landlords can claim on eligible rentals.

Social housing and new builds are excluded, with a narrow exception for self-builds. Check your eligibility on the GOV.UK website.

What the grant doesn't cover

It doesn't pay for the whole job. £9,000 takes a substantial bite out of the cost, and what's left depends on your property, your radiators and how well the system has been designed.

It also does nothing for the months in between, which is the problem nobody selling you a heat pump wants to talk about. Demand for MCS-certified installers is about to spike in exactly the rural, off-gas-grid areas where installer capacity is thinnest. Surveys take weeks to book. Installs take longer than that. Right through all of it, your existing oil or LPG boiler remains the only thing standing between your family and a cold house.

How can this go wrong?

This is illustrative, a composite of the calls we take rather than one specific customer.

A farmhouse in the Peak District, off the gas grid, heated by a 19-year-old oil boiler that's been nursed through three winters and one bad autumn. The owner reads about the grant in July, books a survey in August, and gets a date for the heat pump install in early November. Sensible planning, properly done.

In the third week of October the boiler stops. No heat and no hot water, and an installer who can't bring the November date forward because the unit hasn't been delivered. That leaves three weeks in a cold house, or an emergency call-out with a fee plus labour on a system that's being ripped out in a fortnight.

We take that call every autumn. It's the most common way a well-planned heat pump switch turns into an unplanned bill, and it has nothing to do with the grant, the installer or the paperwork. It's just the boiler running out of road two weeks early.

What our customers tell us

Graham came to us after British Gas and Calor Gas had both failed to fix a gas leak. His supply had been cut off, and someone disabled was living in the property. Our team found Kevin, who drove 50 miles late on a Friday, traced the fault to the LPG hob and isolated it, and got the heating back on that night.

That's what an off-grid heating failure looks like when it happens to you. The household names couldn't help, it was late on a Friday, and somebody still had to get in a van and drive.

How to apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

Book a survey early, even if the install lands months away. A good surveyor will tell you whether your property suits an air source or ground source system, what your radiators need, and what you'll pay once the grant comes off. It also puts you in the queue before the rush.

Check your installer is MCS-certified before anything else. The grant can only be claimed through one, whatever anybody promises you. Search the register on the MCS installer finder, and the GOV.UK guide sets out the process end to end. Get three quotes and compare them on how the system has been designed for your house. A heat pump sized badly will disappoint you for fifteen years, and no grant compensates for that.

Then get the boiler you've already got serviced. It has one more winter to see out.

Cover the gap

HeroCare covers all boiler types, oil and LPG and air source heat pumps included, alongside central heating, plumbing, electrics and drainage, from £10 a month. The boiler you're replacing is covered while you wait for the installer, and the heat pump that replaces it is covered once it's in.

Two plans. HeroCare Plus includes an annual boiler service and HeroCare doesn't, and both let you pick a £0 or £75 call-out fee. Over 1,200 qualified engineers across the UK, a UK-based support team, and someone who answers the phone.

If you let the property out, we cover landlords too. Get it sorted while the weather's still warm.

Boiler already down? Emergency Hero can get a vetted local engineer to you today, 24/7.

Frequently asked questions

• Does my home qualify for the £9,000 heat pump grant? It needs to be in England or Wales, off the gas grid, currently heated by oil or LPG, and having an eligible air-to-water or ground source heat pump installed by an MCS-certified installer. Check the live criteria on GOV.UK

• What if I'm on mains gas? The standard £7,500 grant applies. The uplift is for off-gas-grid oil and LPG properties only.

• Do I need an EPC? No. A valid EPC is no longer a precondition, and outstanding insulation recommendations no longer stop an application.

• Can landlords claim the grant? Yes, on a property you own and rent out, provided it meets the eligibility rules.

• What happens after 31 March 2027? The grant reverts to £7,500. Treat the £9,000 as a window rather than a permanent feature.

• My oil boiler has broken down and I can't wait for a heat pump. What now? Get it repaired or replaced by a qualified engineer, and start the heat pump conversation separately. A cold house in October is a bad place from which to make a fifteen-year heating decision.

• Do I apply for the grant myself? No. Your MCS-certified installer applies on your behalf and deducts the grant from your quote.

• Is my new heat pump covered by HeroCare? Yes. Air source heat pumps are covered, and so are oil and LPG boilers, so your cover carries across the switch.

Grant values and eligibility criteria are set by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and administered by Ofgem, and are correct at the time of writing. Check GOV.UK before applying.

HeroCare is provided by Emergency Hero Ltd.