Green Deal vs Boiler Upgrade Scheme

The Green Deal and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme are not two versions of the same thing. The Green Deal was a pay-as-you-save financing mechanism, launched by the Coalition Government, that let private firms install energy efficiency measures at no upfront cost and recoup the money through a charge in instalments on the energy bill¹. It is closed. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a live grant programme, administered by Ofgem, that provides upfront capital grants towards the cost of installing approved heat pumps and biomass boilers in England and Wales³.

For a householder with a legacy Green Deal plan, the practical question is not which scheme to choose. It is what the plan on the meter still costs, and whether the current grant can be used alongside it. The answer to the second part is no: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted from an installer's quote for a new heating system, not applied to an outstanding finance charge⁵.

The headline figures are these. The standard Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is £7,500, and from 21 July 2026 eligible off-gas grid properties with an air-to-water or ground source heat pump can apply for an uplifted grant of £9,000, in place until 31 March 2027⁶. Air-to-air heat pumps attract £2,500 and biomass boilers £5,000⁸. The scheme opened on 23 May 2022 and is scheduled to close at 11:59pm on 30 December 2029⁹.

What each scheme offers in the UK

The Green Deal was a financing mechanism, not a grant. It enabled private firms to offer domestic and non-domestic consumers energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost, recouped through a charge in instalments on the energy bill². Under the legislation, an energy plan is a Green Deal plan if the improvements are paid for wholly or partly in instalments and all the conditions in section 1(4) are met, including eligible property, qualifying energy improvements, assessment conditions, plan terms conditions and a relevant energy supplier supplying energy to the property¹¹. The charge stayed with the house on the energy meter, which is why a plan can outlive the householder who took it out.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme works in the opposite direction. It provides grants to assist with installation costs, paid upfront and deducted from the installer's quote before the property owner pays anything¹. It supports the decarbonisation of homes and small and medium non-domestic buildings in England and Wales, and covers air-to-water heat pumps, air-to-air heat pumps, ground source heat pumps including water source heat pumps and shared ground loops, and biomass boilers³.

The two schemes also differ in what they were for. The Green Deal funded fabric and efficiency measures broadly. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme funds a heating system replacement, and the installation must replace an existing fossil-fuel or electric heating system¹³. The previous system must have been a fossil fuel-based system or an electric heating system that does not include a heat pump¹⁴.

Specifications: what qualifies and what does not

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has a detailed specification regime, and the figures matter because they determine whether a voucher is issued at all. All heating systems installed under the scheme must meet the relevant MCS standards approved and published by the Secretary of State, and all installations must be MCS certified¹⁵. The installer must be certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme⁹.

Air-to-air heat pumps are eligible for residential properties only, and only one voucher can be redeemed per property¹⁵. A property is not eligible if a previous Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant has already been received for installing a heat pump or biomass boiler at the same address¹⁵. Self-build properties are eligible for heat pumps only, not biomass¹⁵. Properties classed as social housing are not eligible, and that includes shared ownership properties¹³. New builds by developers are not eligible, though a householder moving into a finished new build with a fossil fuel boiler may be able to get a grant for a heat pump⁹.

The Green Deal's specification regime was different in kind. Its central constraint was the Golden Rule, under which savings figures were calculated, and the official position was that cost savings would vary depending on the actual amount of energy used to heat the property and the actual condition of the house before measures were installed¹⁷. That variability is the reason the scheme's modelled savings and real bills diverged.

What the warranty and consumer protection cover

Neither scheme is a warranty. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides a grant to help cover the costs of installing low carbon heating technologies, such as heat pumps, and the grant itself carries no product guarantee¹⁰. The warranty on the installed system comes from the manufacturer and the installer, and the scheme's protection takes a different form: Ofgem can conduct site or desk audits at any point after a Boiler Upgrade Scheme application, including after grant payment¹³. Installers are required to keep all documentation relied upon in voucher applications and voucher redemption applications for six years from the date the application was properly made¹⁵.

That audit power is the scheme's real compliance mechanism. A voucher application is only considered properly made once Ofgem has all the necessary information to assess eligibility, and the property owner has provided consent and identity verification¹⁴. The application has two stages, a voucher application and a voucher redemption application, and the application must be properly made within 120 days of the commissioning date¹⁵. Ofgem may grant an extension to the 120-day commissioning rule where the length of time taken to reach certain administrative decisions results, or is likely to result, in the 120-day period being exceeded for a re-application¹⁴.

For a legacy Green Deal plan, the consumer protection question is different again. The plan is a debt attached to the meter, and disputes about it sit with the energy supplier and the ombudsman rather than with any grant body. The Energy Ombudsman lists Energy Swap as an active participant in its dispute resolution service¹⁸. A householder who has inherited a plan should establish from the supplier what the outstanding balance is and how the charge appears on the bill.

What it costs, and what the grant does not cover

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant values are fixed and published. The standard grant is £7,500 for eligible properties that do not qualify for the uplifted rate¹⁵. From 21 July 2026, eligible off-gas grid properties can apply for an uplifted grant of £9,000 for an air-to-water heat pump or ground source heat pump, and that uplifted value is in place until 31 March 2027⁷. The uplifted grant requires the property not to be fuelled by mains gas, and the heating system being replaced must be fuelled by oil or liquefied petroleum gas¹³. Air-to-air heat pumps attract £2,500 and biomass boilers £5,000⁸.

The scheme's own budget history explains why the values have moved. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme had an initial budget of £150m per financial year for 2022-2025¹⁵. Unspent budget is not carried over to the next scheme year, so a slow year does not build a reserve for a busy one²⁰. The scheme has been extended to 2030, and the guidance distinguishes applications properly made on or after 28 April 2026 from those made earlier¹⁵.

The Green Deal's cost model was the reverse of a grant. The householder paid nothing upfront and repaid the whole cost plus finance through the bill. The official consultation on the scheme noted that the potential £120 assessment fee meant the estimated £15 cost of having a cylinder jacket fitted was misleading, and that this was more likely to be problematic for homeowners having their boiler or windows replaced than for extensions and conversions⁵. That mismatch between headline measure cost and total household cost is the clearest single illustration of how the two schemes differ.

Prices for the underlying heating system are installer-quoted, and no published price range is available. The grant is a contribution to installation costs, not a fixed-price offer: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides upfront capital grants towards the cost of installing approved heat pumps¹⁵, and the full grant value must be deducted from the quote before any payment is made by the property owner¹⁵.

The status of each scheme and its administrator

The Green Deal is closed. It was launched by the previous Coalition Government to incentivise and help fund energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies for homes, and it no longer accepts new plans⁴. Existing plans remain live obligations on the properties that carry them.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open and administered by Ofgem on behalf of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority¹⁴. It opened on 23 May 2022 at 12:01am and is scheduled to close at 11:59pm on 30 December 2029⁹. Ofgem guidance states the scheme has been extended to 2030¹⁵. Ofgem is required to publish quarterly and annual reports on its website and aims to publish monthly operational updates¹⁵. The most recent quarterly report covers the period from 1 May 2026 to 31 July 2026²².

There is a live question about installer certification. Ofgem guidance states that there are currently no schemes determined by the Energy Department to be equivalent to MCS²³. A consultation on Boiler Upgrade Scheme and certification requirements for clean heat schemes has concluded²⁴. The scheme's general enquiries line is BUS.Enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk or 0330 053 2006¹⁵.

The scheme's scale has been questioned officially. A parliamentary committee assessment found that the scheme is not of the scale that is required to meet the Government's targets of decarbonising residential heat²⁵. That is a statement about the programme's reach, not about any individual installation.

What it means for household energy independence

The two schemes point in opposite directions on independence. The Green Deal financed efficiency measures and left the household repaying a charge on the energy bill, so the household's relationship with its supplier deepened rather than loosened. The charge stays with the meter, which means it transfers to whoever pays the bill at that property.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme moves a household off a fossil fuel heating system, which is the dependence that matters most for a home without a mains gas connection. The uplifted £9,000 grant is specifically aimed at off-gas grid properties whose previous system was oil or LPG⁷. Replacing an oil boiler or an LPG system with a heat pump removes a delivered fuel dependency and shifts the household onto electricity, which can increasingly be met by on-site generation.

What remains is electricity. A heat pump household is still connected to the grid and still buys units from a supplier, and the scheme does not fund generation or storage. The grant also does not cover the full installed cost, so the household carries the balance. And the scheme is not available in Scotland or Northern Ireland, where separate national programmes apply¹⁰. For a household in England or Wales with a legacy Green Deal plan, the two things can coexist on the same property: the plan continues to be repaid through the bill while a new grant funds a different measure, provided the funding rules on blending are respected¹⁹.