Boiler scrappage schemes: the closed English scheme

What exists instead is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which covers England and Wales and pays upfront grants of up to £7,500, or £9,000 for homes heated by oil and LPG, towards a heat pump or, in limited circumstances, a biomass boiler³. The scheme has been extended to 2030⁴, and it is the main route by which a household with an old G-rated boiler can now get help to replace it.

The schemes that paid for old boilers, and why they are gone

Scrappage-style schemes shared a simple idea: pay households something towards a new, efficient boiler when they scrapped an old one. The Northern Ireland Boiler Replacement Scheme worked this way, providing owner occupiers whose gross annual income was less than £40,000 with help for the cost of replacing boilers over 15 years old⁷. That scheme is now closed¹.

The Warm Home Discount Scheme, which sat alongside boiler support for low-income households, has likewise closed². The reason for the shift is policy as much as money: government support has moved away from paying for new fossil fuel boilers and towards paying for low-carbon heating. The Renewable Heat Incentive that preceded today's scheme has itself been replaced with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme⁸.

For a household's energy independence this is a real change of direction. The old schemes helped you buy a more efficient version of the same gas-dependent appliance. The current scheme pays you to leave fossil heating behind altogether, which reduces dependence on the gas grid or on delivered oil and LPG, though it leaves you dependent on electricity and on the scheme's own rules and budget.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme: grants, technologies and how to apply

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront grants to help reduce the cost of installing a low-carbon heating system, such as a heat pump or, in limited circumstances, a biomass boiler, in properties in England and Wales⁹. The standard grant is up to £7,500³, confirmed in the official notice of approved grant categories and values¹⁰, with £9,000 for owners of properties heated by oil and liquid petroleum gas¹¹. Biomass boilers are an eligible technology¹², with an approved category for a biomass boiler in an off-gas grid property replacing an oil heating system¹⁰.

The application is installer-led, with the installer applying for the grant on the property owner's behalf: the installer discounts the grant from the invoice, applies to Ofgem for a grant voucher, and redeems the voucher after installation and commissioning¹³. You cannot apply yourself⁹. To be eligible, the property must have a fossil fuel heating system, such as gas, oil or LPG, or an electric heating system, excluding existing heat pumps⁹.

The scheme's closing date is 30 December 2029, 11:59pm¹³, and it has been extended to 2030⁴. A £2,500 grant for heat batteries will also be available once the legislation and appropriate product standards are in place¹⁴, and independent guidance confirms heat batteries will be eligible for a £2,500 grant through the scheme¹⁵.

What the scheme has delivered so far

Uptake has grown steadily. By the end of March 2026 the scheme had supported 80,098 low-carbon heating systems since it started⁵, up from 49,136 a year earlier¹⁶. Scheme Year 3 alone supported 25,331 installations¹⁶. Vouchers issued across the scheme total £504,994,500 in value, against 68,605 voucher redemption applications¹⁷. Around 76.3% of grants paid since the start of the scheme were for the replacement of fossil fuelled heating systems, like gas boilers⁵, which is exactly the job the old scrappage schemes once did, but with a low-carbon result.

The scheme's carbon ambition is substantial: it is expected to deliver up to 1.1MtCO2e of carbon savings over Carbon Budgets 4 and 5, and 2.6MtCO2e over its lifetime⁶.

When gas boilers are phased out

There is no ban on keeping or using a gas boiler. The government's stated ambition is to end the installation of gas boilers by 2035 at the latest¹⁸, and the Heat and Building Strategy plans to phase out the installation of new natural gas boilers beyond 2035¹⁹. Independent reporting likewise describes plans to phase out new gas boilers from 2035²⁰.

On new homes, the direction is faster. Earlier policy set a nationwide ban on installing gas boilers in all new-build properties by 2025 and for all households by 2035⁶, and the consultation on England's Future Homes Standard proposes banning gas boilers, following Scotland's lead²¹. The detail of our gas boiler ban page sets out what is actually law and what remains ambition.

For households, the practical reading is that a gas boiler bought today remains usable, but the policy direction is fixed: new installations are intended to stop from 2035, and grant support is already aimed at the alternatives.

Still running an old G-rated boiler

A G-rated boiler is the least efficient class still found in UK homes, and the running-cost penalty is well documented. Independent guidance puts the saving from upgrading a G-rated boiler to an A-rated one at around £320 a year for a semi-detached house²², with a matching figure of around £320 each year for a semi-detached home on mains gas upgrading to an A-rated condensing boiler with full heating controls, based on energy prices in July 2026²³. A separate estimate for Great Britain puts the saving at £420²⁴. The figures differ because they assume different home types and price bases, but both point the same way: an old G-rated boiler is expensive to run.

Options today fall into two groups. A Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant pays towards a heat pump or biomass boiler if the property has a fossil fuel or eligible electric heating system⁹. Alternatively, a straight boiler replacement remains possible, and the installing engineer can often take the old boiler away at no extra cost, with old boilers or their parts sometimes recycled²⁵. Our pages on boiler efficiency and ErP ratings, new boiler cost and heating grants in each nation cover the practical next steps.