The £2,500 air to air heat pump grant, explained

The air to air heat pump grant is £2,500, it comes from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and it applies to the kind of fixed system most people would call air conditioning. It was announced on 18 November 2025 and has been in the scheme's rules since 28 April 2026, alongside the £7,500 for an air-to-water heat pump (gov.uk).

The thing nobody selling air conditioning mentions: at the end of September 2026 you still cannot actually get it. The official scheme figures to the end of August show 145 applications for the air-to-air grant and not one voucher issued, because no installer in the country has yet been able to get certified for it. More on why below.

That last point is the one worth understanding. This is not a separate scheme with its own rules. It is a category inside a scheme that has been running for years, which means the eligibility rules people already know apply to it. What we fit is on the air conditioning page.

The grant, line by line

• The grant is £2,500 for an air-to-air heat pump in England and Wales.
• The value is the same whatever heating it replaces and whether or not the property is on the gas grid (gov.uk grant categories notice, in force from 21 July 2026).
• It is for homes only. Offices, shops and other business premises cannot get it.
• It is claimed by an installer certified by MCS for air-to-air and deducted from your quote, not paid to you. No installer can hold that certificate yet (see below).
• The install must be commissioned within 120 days of the grant application.
• A fixed system installed in a home is zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027, like solar and heat pumps, because HMRC treats it as an air source heat pump (VAT Notice 708/6). In commercial premises it is 20%.
• gov.uk put the typical install in a flat or small house at around £4,500 when the grant was announced, which is why the grant covers most of it.

What is an air-to-air heat pump?

The same machine as a modern air conditioner, used the other way round.

An outdoor unit takes heat from the outside air, a refrigerant circuit carries it indoors, and one or more wall units blow warm air into the room. Reverse the cycle in summer and it takes heat out of the room instead. It is a heat pump in both directions, which is why the scheme now treats it as one.

The difference from an air-to-water heat pump is where the heat ends up. Air-to-water heats the water in your radiators and your hot water cylinder. Air-to-air heats the air in the room and does nothing for your hot water at all, which is the single most important thing to understand before you spend money on one.

Why does the Boiler Upgrade Scheme cover air conditioning?

Because the policy question was about heating a home without a gas boiler, and for some homes a fixed air-to-air system is the sensible way to do it.

The government's announcement made the reasoning explicit: these units keep a home warm in winter and cool in summer, and they suit flats and smaller homes that have no central heating and nowhere to put a cylinder. Those properties had been badly served by a scheme built around replacing boilers.

The scheme's approved grant categories notice lists air-to-air at £2,500 for properties on the gas grid and at £2,500 for off-gas-grid properties replacing coal, oil, LPG, an electric non-heat-pump system or another fossil fuel. The figure does not change with the circumstances, unlike the air-to-water categories, which run from £7,500 to £9,000.

What is the air to air heat pump grant eligibility?

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme's own conditions, which gov.uk sets out in full.

It has to be a home: one you live in, a second home, a holiday let or a house you let to tenants. Unlike the other categories, business premises are excluded. The new system has to replace gas, oil, LPG, coal or electric heating that is not already a heat pump, and replace it completely: the old boiler cannot stay on as a backup. One grant per property, no hybrid systems, and nothing for replacing a heating system that is already low carbon (Ofgem installer guidance, July 2026).

Most new build properties are excluded, as is social housing and any property that has already had government funding for a heat pump. Self-builds qualify if you or the original owner built the property and it has never been owned by a business.

The practical test for a lot of people is the one about replacing a heating system. A grant to add cooling to a house that already has a working gas boiler and is keeping it is not what this category is for.

Why can nobody claim it yet?

Because the grant can only be claimed by an installer certified by MCS for air-to-air, and that certificate does not exist yet for anyone to hold.

MCS published the design and installation rules for air-to-air in December 2025. UKAS, which accredits the people who do the certifying, approved the updated installer scheme on 11 September 2026. The certification bodies, NAPIT and Certsure among them, now have to get their own accreditation before they can certify a single installer. Until that happens, applications can go in but vouchers cannot come out, which is exactly what the official figures show: 145 applications and no vouchers by the end of August 2026.

It will open. Nobody has put a date on it.

How will the grant be claimed?

By the installer, with the voucher issued in your name and the money taken off your price. You should never be asked to pay in full and claim it back.

One thing to check before you sign anything. MCS certification is scope-specific, so ask your installer to show you the certificate that covers air-to-air heat pumps rather than a certificate for something else. It is a separate scope from air-to-water, and an installer without it cannot apply for this grant on your behalf whatever they tell you on the phone. Right now that means every installer, us included.

The install then has to be commissioned within 120 days of the application, so the grant should be applied for against a real date in the diary.

What does an air to air heat pump cost in the UK?

gov.uk's own figure, published with the announcement in November 2025, was around £4,500 for an install in a flat or a small house. That is a single indoor unit job, and it is the case the grant was designed around.

A multi-split system, with one outdoor unit feeding three or four rooms, is a bigger job in every direction: more indoor units, much more pipework, more making good, and a longer day or two on site. Get it surveyed and priced properly rather than scaled up from a headline.

Two things people get wrong about the cost. The first is VAT, and it usually goes in your favour: HMRC's guidance says most air conditioning units are air source heat pumps, so a permanently fixed system fitted in your home is zero-rated until 31 March 2027, the same as solar and batteries (HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6). A portable unit is not, and anything fitted to commercial premises carries 20%. And fixed systems containing fluorinated gases have to be installed by an F-gas registered company, which we are, under REFCOM REF1023574.

Does it need planning permission?

Usually not, since the permitted development rules in England changed in May 2025 to include air-to-air units.

The same conditions apply as for any other air source heat pump. The installation must comply with MCS 020 a), which means the sound calculation has to show 37 dB(A) or less at the assessment position, one metre from the nearest habitable room window or door of a neighbouring property. The outdoor unit must be no more than 1.5 cubic metres on a house, or 0.6 cubic metres on a block of flats. Listed buildings and scheduled monuments are excluded, and conservation areas restrict walls and roof slopes facing a highway.

Flats have an extra layer: the lease. Check it, and check with the freeholder, before anything is ordered.

A worked example: a two-bed flat with electric heating

Storage heaters in the lounge and both bedrooms, an immersion for hot water, no gas connection and nowhere for a cylinder.

A single outdoor unit and two indoor units handle the living space and the main bedroom, replacing the storage heaters that do the real work. Once the grant opens, it takes £2,500 off the quote; until then the job is priced without it. The immersion stays, because an air-to-air system does nothing for hot water, and that is an honest limitation rather than a footnote.

The result is a flat that is warm in February and bearable in July, from one system, in a property where an air-to-water heat pump was never going to fit.

When I would not fit one

If you have a working wet heating system and a place for a cylinder, air-to-water is the better long-term answer. It heats your water, it suits a whole house, and it carries the larger grant.

If what you actually want is cooling in one bedroom and you are not replacing any heating, buy the air conditioning on its own merits and do not build a plan around a grant you will not get.

And if somebody knocks on the door offering a government discount on air conditioning today, ask for their air-to-air MCS certificate. At the time of writing nobody has one.

If you are weighing one up

Is my house suitable for a heat pump is the right read if you have radiators and a cylinder space, and how noisy is a heat pump covers the noise assessment that decides where the outdoor unit goes.

To find out which of the two suits your property, Get a quote with your postcode, or ring 01709 278248.