Taking advantage of a Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) grant that was increased by 20 per cent, from £7,500 to £9,000, to help households on heating oil and LPG, there has been an increase of 112 per cent on total applications compared to same month last year with 8,150 households applying to install a heat pump.

Rural properties have shown strong demand for heat pumps, with 49 per cent of all redemptions paid on the scheme against 51 per cent urban since scheme launched, and 38 per cent to homes off the gas grid.

Up until the end of July 2026, there were 143,650 BUS voucher applications received, with the vast majority for grants towards air-sourced heat pumps (98 per cent).

The total number of applications in July 2026 across all technology types (8,150) was 81 per cent higher than the previous month (June 2026; 4,512) and 112 per cent higher than the same month of the previous year (July 2025; 3,853); the highest number of voucher applications in a month since the scheme started.

The number of redemption applications in July 2026 across all technology types (2,698) was 4 per cent higher than the previous month (June 2026; 2,598) and there were 2,862 redemptions paid in July 2026, bringing the total number of redemptions paid through the scheme to 90,115.

Of the total 90,115 installations with BUS redemptions paid up to the end of July 2026, the largest proportion (56 per cent) replaced gas systems, followed by oil (17 per cent) and then properties which did not previously have a heating system at all (13 per cent).

Figures for Q2 show that there has been a general upward trend in the number of retrofit heat pump installations; as the last full calendar year, 2025 volumes are a 9 per cent increase on the previous year (2024; 48,857) and are over 4 and a half times higher than 5 years ago (2020, 11,327), but the number of installations in the current year so far (2026 up to the end of Q2; 20,895) has seen a 22 per cent fall compared to the same period in 2025 (26,768).

Only Northern Ireland and London saw growth when comparing 2026 up to the end of Q2 and the same period in 2025 in the number of retrofit heat pumps installed. However, for Northern Ireland, this was from low volumes compared to the other regions.

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