The total number of Boiler Upgrade Scheme applications in March 2024 (2,138) was 46% higher than the volume received during the same month of the previous year (March 2023; 1,466).
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has a monthly budget of £12.5 million, that’s roughly 1,666 BUS grants per month.
Since the Prime Minister’s relaunch of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in October 2023, when the funding was increased to £7,500, DESNZ has awarded on average 2,000 grants per month. This shows that the BUS scheme is exceeding expectations.
Daniel Särefjord, Aira UK CEO said: “The heat pump industry is now one of the country’s fastest growing sectors, employing nearly 5,000 people nationwide to accelerate the electrification and decarbonisation of residential heating. The industry is working hard to help households bring down their heating related costs, reduce CO2 emissions and to improve air quality for communities up and down the country by helping consumers to scrap their polluting gas or oil-fired boilers.
“With the relaxation of the home insulation criteria for the BUS coming into effect in May, we expect even greater consumer interest in the government’s boiler scrappage grant in the coming months. This policy change will help to bring down the average cost of installing a heat pump under the BUS by £2,500, allowing families to choose when to upgrade their home insulation and making heat pump ownership even more budget friendly.
”Collectively as an industry, I’m optimistic that we will reach our national annual target of installing 600,000 heat pumps, which is less than 90 heat pump installations per month in each of the 573 constituencies in England and Wales where the grant is available. Achieving this milestone will help the industry support thousands more jobs in the clean energy sector and provide more energy security for the UK by reducing our country’s dependence on volatile imported fossil fuels, such as gas and oil for our heating needs, whilst also preventing 1.32 million tonnes of CO2 pollution being emitted into our atmosphere each year by gas boilers.”
Ofgem estimates that a ‘medium’ UK home uses 12,000kWh of gas per year, 1,000kWh per month. According to official government figures, burning natural gas generates 183g of CO2 per kWh. This equates to 183kg per month for an average UK boiler, or 2.20 tonnes per year x 600,000 (heat pumps) = 1.32 million tonnes of CO2 pollution.
