Boiler Upgrade Scheme Annual Report - April 2024 to March 2025
Transparency document
- Publication date
- Scheme name
- BUS
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) launched on 23 May 2022 to support the decarbonisation of heat in buildings. It provides upfront capital grants towards the cost of installing approved heat pumps and, in limited circumstances, biomass boilers in homes and small non-domestic buildings in England and Wales.
Changing the way we heat our homes and businesses, by replacing fossil fuel and direct electric heating systems with lower carbon alternatives, is essential to reach net zero and the BUS is playing an important role in supporting this.
As part of our statutory responsibilities administering the scheme, we have produced this annual report to provide an update on activity during Scheme Year 3 from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Voucher summary
- During Scheme Year 3, we received 38,412 BUS applications, rejected 2,295 that failed our eligibility checks, and a further 2,943 applications were withdrawn by the applicant.
- After completion of our pre-installation eligibility checks we issued a total of 32,996 vouchers during Scheme Year 3 worth over £247 million.
- 25,712 vouchers were redeemed in Scheme Year 3, but a further 3,638 expired before they were redeemed.
Analysis of grants paid
- During BUS Scheme Year 3 we paid grants worth £189,737,500, supporting the installation of 25,331 low carbon heating systems. This brings the total value of grants paid since the start of the scheme to £328,232,000, supporting 49,136 low carbon heating systems.
- In total, 97% of grants paid were for air source heat pumps and around 75% were for the replacement of fossil fuelled heating systems, like gas boilers.
- 1,591 installers are registered under the BUS and the top 10 installers (by application volumes) are responsible for over 40% of all grant applications received in Scheme Year 3.
Monitoring compliance
- More than 1,200 applications were audited in Scheme Year 3 (targeted and random audits) with an initial compliance rate of 90.2%. Note that following an audit, where possible, we instruct the applicant to take corrective action. As such some of those initially assessed as being non-compliant may subsequently be brought into compliance.
- We also closed 935 compliance investigations in Scheme Year 3, of which 346 (37%) were found to be non-compliant. Through the compliance action we took in Year 3 we prevented £1,925,000 of public funds being paid incorrectly and identified a further £243,500 for recovery.
Please note: For those wishing to look at the data used in the report in more detail, a spreadsheet with this information is published below.