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Leeds · the air-to-air grant

Leeds: £2,500 air-to-air heat pump grant

Written by Solomon Amos.

Sources: CIBSE TM59, Building Regs Part O, gov.uk Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and MCS (the certification scheme for registered installers) - see methodology

Last checked against current grant rules on 14 August 2026

Quick answer

Yes, but only in one specific way. In Leeds, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump - a unit that cools your home in summer and heats it in winter - when it replaces fossil-fuel or electric heating and is fitted by an MCS-certified installer. A cooling-only add-on that keeps your existing boiler does not qualify, whatever your current heating type.

Heating in Leeds, and what it means for the grant

There is nothing unusual about Leeds's heating profile: roughly 80.5% mains gas and 18.5% electric, with the rest on oil, LPG or solid fuel. That ordinariness does not change what the grant needs from you - a genuine replacement of your existing heating, done by an MCS-certified installer.

Leeds's heating, by the numbers

Mains gas heats 80.5% of the EPC-certified homes in Leeds, against 18.5% on electric and 0.5% on oil, LPG or solid fuel, a typical year's heating across the property types we profile here costs about £669, band D is the commonest EPC rating here, covering 42% of rated homes and this fuel-mix figure covers 98.1% of Leeds's EPC certificates, so it is a real, high-confidence local read, not a national estimate applied to your postcode.

The two honest branches

Whether the grant pays for your Leeds home comes down to a single decision: do you replace your heating, or keep it? We show both outcomes with equal weight, never as a blanket promise.

Eligible - you replace your heating. If an air-to-air heat pump replaces a fossil-fuel or electric system (mains gas, oil, LPG, electric storage heaters or direct electric) and is fitted by an MCS-certified installer, the £2,500 applies, and the old system is decommissioned rather than run alongside the new one.

Not eligible - you keep your boiler. If you keep your existing heating and add cooling as a standalone unit, that cooling-only add-on does not qualify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, however it is marketed. Adding air conditioning while keeping your gas boiler is a private-pay job, carried out by an F-Gas / REFCOM-registered engineer rather than an MCS-certified one.

The grant itself is law and your eligibility is real, but no air-to-air product has reached the MCS Product Directory yet, so no installer can issue a Boiler Upgrade Scheme voucher today. Air-to-air enters MCS scheme scope on 5 December 2026, and vouchers follow once certified products list. Get quotes now, but treat the grant as pending rather than banked.

Grant rules as of August 2026 and subject to change, so always confirm the current terms on gov.uk before applying. The grant itself is a national government scheme - Leeds Council has no say over your eligibility for it. If your Leeds home also needs planning permission for the outdoor unit, that is a separate, local question our planning pages cover.

What MCS means for a grant-eligible install in Leeds

MCS - the certification scheme for registered installers - is the quality standard your installer must hold for the grant to pay. It certifies the installer and the installation work, never the homeowner and never GetComfort.

We route a grant-eligible air-to-air enquiry from Leeds to an MCS-certified installer, and a cooling-only job to an F-Gas / REFCOM-registered engineer instead, because refrigerant-only work is what those engineers are licensed for. Confusing the two is the single most common mistake homeowners make when researching this grant.

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Frequently asked questions

Can I get the £2,500 grant for air conditioning in Leeds?

Only in one specific case. The £2,500 applies when an air-to-air heat pump replaces your fossil-fuel or electric heating and is fitted by an MCS-certified installer. If you keep your existing heating and simply add cooling, that cooling-only add-on does not qualify, whatever it is marketed as.

Is the grant available in Leeds right now, or is it coming later?

Live in law, not yet in practice. Leeds is covered by the air-to-air pathway of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme exactly as the rest of England is, and has been since 28 April 2026 - but until air-to-air products appear on the MCS Product Directory no installer can generate a compliant voucher. That gate lifts as air-to-air enters MCS scope on 5 December 2026. (Grant rules as of August 2026 and subject to change.)

Does my Leeds installer need to be MCS-certified?

For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to pay, yes - the installer, not you, needs the MCS certification. It is a scheme for registered installers, not homeowners. In Leeds, a cooling-only air-conditioning job never goes through MCS; that work needs an F-Gas / REFCOM-registered engineer.

What if I want to keep my gas boiler and just add air conditioning in Leeds?

In that case the grant does not pay - it requires the heat pump to replace and decommission your existing heating, not sit alongside it. Adding cooling to a Leeds home while the boiler stays is a private-pay job, and the installer you need is F-Gas / REFCOM-registered, not MCS-certified.

Every home is different - your floor, aspect, EPC band, heating type and conservation status all change the answer. Our free cooling checker pre-fills your home from public property data (EPC and UPRN records) and settles a property-specific verdict for your Leeds home immediately on screen: an overheating score, the right system, whether you genuinely qualify for the grant, the planning position and a net cost. No phone call, no waiting.

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You will see your full cooling plan instantly. If you would like us to email it to you, or to have a single vetted local installer contact you about a free survey, you choose that at the end - we only get in touch if you ask.

Every figure above follows our published methodology.

More on cooling a home in Leeds