Grants · 6 min read
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme explained — £7,500 for Hampshire homeowners
What the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers, who qualifies, why your installer must be MCS accredited, and how the money actually reaches you.
What the grant is
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) is a government grant that reduces the up-front cost of replacing a fossil fuel heating system with a low carbon one. The current figures published on our site are £7,500 towards an air source heat pump and £2,500 towards an air-to-air system.
The grant is not paid to you. It is paid to the installer and deducted from your quotation, so the price you see already has the grant taken off.
Your installer must be MCS accredited
This is the part people are caught out by. The grant application is made by the installer, and only an MCS accredited installer can make it. If a company cannot give you an MCS registration number, they cannot access the grant for you.
BBI Heating is MCS accredited under NIC601962. We make the application as part of the job.
Other funding worth knowing about
The BUS is not the only route, and which applies depends on the property and the household.
- ECO4 — funds retrofits for lower-income households, usually as a package including insulation.
- The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) — targets fabric measures rather than heating appliances.
- 0% VAT on qualifying energy-saving installations — applies to qualifying energy-saving installations, including heat pumps and solar.
How we handle it
We confirm eligibility at survey, submit the application, and show the grant as a deduction on your written quotation. You are not asked to chase paperwork, and you do not pay the grant amount up front and claim it back.
Questions we get asked
Do I have to pay the £7,500 up front and claim it back?
No. The grant is paid to the installer and shown as a deduction on your quotation.
Does my home need an EPC to qualify?
Eligibility conditions apply and are checked as part of the application. We confirm your position at survey before you commit to anything.
Can I get the grant for a hybrid system?
Scheme rules determine what qualifies. We will tell you clearly at survey which of the options we quote are grant-eligible and which are not.
Want this checked against your own property?
A survey costs nothing and turns general advice into specific numbers. We are Gas Safe, NICEIC and MCS accredited (NIC601962), so whichever direction the answer points, the same team can do the work.
More guides
Keep reading
Is a heat pump right for my Hampshire home?
The honest version: the appliance is rarely the problem. Whether a heat pump works in your home is decided by heat loss, emitter size and the control setup.
Read guideHeat pumpsHeat pump vs gas boiler: how the running costs actually compare
A straightforward way to compare the two without spreadsheets — and the three variables that decide the answer for your house.
Read guideSolarSolar PV in Hampshire: what a realistic system looks like
Roof orientation, panel count, batteries and the electrical work behind it — what actually changes the outcome.
Read guideReady to get started?
Tell us about your property and we will come back with a written, itemised quotation — not a phone estimate.