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

Westminster's heating mix is fairly typical for the areas we track: roughly 80.2% mains gas, 18.7% electric, and a small share of oil, LPG or solid fuel. None of that changes the grant rule - it pays on replacement, whatever heating type you currently have, once an MCS-certified installer confirms it.

The split across Westminster's EPC-certified stock is 80.2% mains gas, 18.7% electric and 0.6% oil, LPG or solid fuel, typical annual heating costs across the property types we track here run around £537, the most common EPC band locally is D (41% of rated homes) and the fuel-mix split above is drawn from 93.9% of Westminster's EPC certificates, which makes it a genuine local measurement rather than a national average pinned to your postcode.

For a Westminster home, one decision settles whether the grant pays: replace your heating, or keep it. Both outcomes below carry equal weight - neither is the "default" answer.

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 installer can be MCS-certified for air-to-air yet, so no Boiler Upgrade Scheme voucher can be issued today. Certified air-to-air products are already listed; installers can certify once the certification bodies gain UKAS accreditation, and MCS has not set a date for that. 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. This is a national scheme, so the London Borough of Westminster plays no part in deciding whether you qualify. Planning permission for the outdoor unit in Westminster, if you need it, is a different and entirely separate matter, covered on our planning pages.

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.

From Westminster, a grant-eligible air-to-air job is routed to an MCS-certified installer, while a pure cooling job goes to an F-Gas / REFCOM-registered engineer - the licence that covers refrigerant-only work. Homeowners researching this grant mix the two up more than anything else.