The Government is taking significant steps to make heat pumps more accessible and affordable for homeowners, demonstrated by the record installation levels set in both 2024 and 2025.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) provides grants of up to £7,500 for all eligible households in England and Wales, and we recently announced a £1,500 uplift for properties heated by oil and LPG. We recently expanded scheme eligibility to include air-to-air heat pumps, which are generally cheaper to install.

The Warm Homes: Local Grant and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund also provide fully-funded heat pumps to low-income households,

The Warm Homes Plan committed to a new low-interest consumer loans scheme – backed by £2bn public funding – which will provide further support with upfront costs. We will provide more details soon.

The Government has reformed planning rules to make it easier to install heat pumps under permitted rights, and we’re working with industry to reduce costs, which have fallen by around 11% in real terms since BUS launched in 2022.

There are no permitted development rights for standalone air conditioning units. However, in certain circumstances, planning permission is not required where it would not materially affect the external appearance of the building. Part P of the Building Regulations (electrical safety) may also apply to installing a standalone air conditioning unit, where a system or the wiring required for it is fixed to a building, so Building Control approval may need to be sought.

There is a permitted development right for domestic air source heat pumps. The right was amended in 2025 to allow for the heat pumps to also be used for cooling to permit the installation of air-to-air heat pumps.

The permitted development right requires that heat pump installations are compliant with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme 020 a) Planning Standard, which provides a noise assessment methodology including an upper noise limit at neighbouring habitable room windows.

Part L (energy efficiency) and P (electrical safety) of the Building Regulations must be complied with when installing an air-to-air heat pump, and it is possible Building Control approval may be needed.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, MHCLG consulted on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). That consultation, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals relating to noise pollution. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme supports property owners to replace existing fossil fuel systems with low-carbon heating alternatives. The Government has no plans to fund replacement of existing heat pumps through the scheme to ensure it maximises carbon savings and supports the greatest number of households transitioning from fossil fuels with the funding available.

Properties with an existing heat pump will generally already have made the necessary ancillary upgrades, reducing costs compared with an initial installation. The Government’s Warm Homes Plan will support households, including through work with industry to develop green finance options.

The Department assesses that heat pump deployment, as part of the wider electrification of heat, is expected to increase annual and winter peak electricity demand over time. The precise impact depends on factors including the rate of deployment, heat pump performance, weather conditions and the availability of consumer-led flexibility. The Department models a range of plausible future demand trajectories to ensure that the electricity system remains flexible, resilient, and able to maintain security of supply under different pathways to net zero.

The usual procedures within the Department were followed with S.I. 2026/368 and the correct version of the S.I. was signed by the Minister.

However, during the drafting process several versions of the S.I. were created to correct several minor formatting issues, and on examination an incorrect version of the S.I. was then laid before Parliament and published. Whilst the Lawmaker software used to draft S.I.s system may have contributed to the generation of multiple versions of the S.I., it was human error that led to the failure.

The Department has taken steps to address these issues, and has also reviewed improvements to the process to ensure that the version that is sent for registration is clearly identified and confirmed as the correct version.

The government does not collect data on recipient income across all heat pump subsidy schemes. Some schemes, such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), are not means-tested, so it is not possible to determine the proportion of funding going to households with an income above the national mean. Evaluations of government schemes that instal heat pumps (e.g. BUS, ECO) have published characteristics of scheme participants including income.

The Clean Heat Market Mechanism is designed to support the development of the retrofit heat pump market as a whole, alongside and complementary to other measures such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. There was a 24% increase in supported heat pump installations under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in the year to March 2026 relative to the previous year.

The Government has outlined plans to carry out an evaluation of a range of policies supporting the home heating transition, including the Clean Heat Market Mechanism. This multi-year evaluation is in its inception phase and will produce findings reports in due course.

Support is available for households to install insulation, alongside measures such as heat pumps and solar PV, through the Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG) and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF). These schemes take a whole‑house approach, with assessments carried out by qualified professionals to determine the most appropriate improvements for each property.

Where Grant Recipients of the WH:LG expect that the energy performance of a home has changed since the most recent Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) was produced, they should ensure a new EPC is created to properly assess eligibility.

Government is reforming EPCs to provide a clearer and more accurate picture of a building’s performance, including through the introduction of metrics covering fabric, heating systems, smart readiness and energy costs.

We will launch EPC reforms in the second half of 2027.

The target of installing 600,000 annual heat pump installations by 2028 was set by the previous government.

This Government has put in place a package of policies – outlined in the Warm Homes Plan which was published earlier this year – that will help ensure that over 450,000 heat pumps are installed each year by 2030.

HM Revenue and Customs publishes annual statistics on the cost of tax relief and expenditures. This information is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics.

The Warm Homes Plan commits £15 billion of public investment over this Parliament to support the heat pump roll-out, retrofit for low-income households, and wider home decarbonisation measures.

The Government remains firmly committed to the Electric Vehicle (EV) transition, and we are investing over £7.5 billion out to 2035 to help drivers and the automotive sector make the switch.

The Department recently consulted on the role of alternative clean heating solutions for properties that may not be suitable for heat pumps or cannot connect to heat networks. Through this consultation, we sought evidence on the costs and barriers to uptake of alternative low‑carbon technologies. We are now considering responses and will publish our response in due course. For Scotland, this responsibility lies with the Scottish Government.

Between July 2024 – March 2026, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme paid out 51,444 vouchers for heat pumps, to the cost of ~£386 million.

Other schemes delivered by the department, such as the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG), Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Local Grant (WH:SHF ; WH:LG) do not provide a breakdown of spend specific to heat pump subsidies alone, as they support a broader range of retrofit energy efficiency measures. However, the Government does publish data showing the average contribution costs for individual measures under these schemes, including for heat pumps.

[1] Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) release statistics: November 2025

[2] Heat pump deployment statistics: September 2025

[3] Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund statistics: April 2026

[4] Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund statistics: April 2026

[5] Warm Homes: Local Grant statistics: April 2026

UK heat pump sales hit a record high in 2025, and the government expects to see continued growth over the coming years.

Manufacturers of a range of heating technologies, including fossil fuel boilers, are among the leading players in this growing market.

The government will continue to keep developments in the market under close review as heat pump uptake in existing and new homes continues to gather pace.

The Department’s latest assessment of the value for money of heat pump deployment is outlined in the March 2026 impact assessment of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. The scheme is demand-led, and funds installations in urban and semi-urban areas, including Leeds.

Our strategy for upgrading buildings is outlined in the Warm Homes Plan, and our Heat Network Zoning policy is designed to support the development of low carbon heat networks in the optimum right places. This ensures that consumers can benefit from the efficiencies that heat networks bring, as described in ADE’s research, whilst also ensuring that we respond to consumer demand for cleaner heat today.