The Government launched the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) in May 2022 to encourage people to switch their gas boiler for a low-carbon heat pump. The scheme now offers a £7,500 grant for air-source and ground-source heat pump installations, with funding to support around 20,000 installations a year. This is an excellent scheme that has now been extended to 2028, but we need more heat pumps deployed each year to help build the sector and transition away from gas boilers.

We were successful in advocating for the annual sum increasing each year from 2025 until 2028 to help scale up the deployment of heat pumps and build the skills base needed to meet future demand.  We asked that installation targets under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme increase from 20,000 heat pumps each year to reach 100,000 installations a year under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme by 2028. This, alongside installing heat pumps in new homes and the Clean Heat Market Mechanism, would maximises the chance of the Government’s target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028.

We also wanted the grants under the BUS for Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) to be increased from £7,500 to at least £9,000-£10,000 to help boost the GSHP industry within the UK.  There is also a 45Kw threshold for GSHP for shared ground loops which currently prevents the deployment of GSHP in small housing estates or blocks of flats, so the limit needed to be reviewed.

We asked the Government to provide greater investment to speed up the transition by increasing the funding available to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in the short term, to confirm what the scheme will look like after 2025, and to establish longer-term policies to create the certainty needed for the heat pump industry to grow.

We also asked the Government to publicise the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, to promote the benefits of heat pumps and help drive the transition away from expensive, unsustainable fossil gas.

Ultimately this campaign was successful.