Off Gas Landlords: The £9,000 Heat Pump Grant Test

The test in plain terms

There are two conditions, and both must be true. The property is heated by oil or LPG, and it has no mains gas connection. GOV.UK says that where both apply, an air source or ground source heat pump can attract an extra £1,500 on top of the standard £7,500, making £9,000.

The uplift applies from 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. Outside those dates, and for homes that fail either condition, the standard £7,500 applies.

What does not qualify for the extra £1,500

• A home on mains gas, even if the gas boiler is old. It gets £7,500.
• A home heated by direct electric, such as storage heaters or panel heaters. It gets £7,500.
• A home that already has low carbon heating. The scheme will not pay to replace it.
• A hybrid system. Hybrids are not funded by the scheme.
• Air to air heat pumps, which have their own £2,500 amount and a separate set of rules.

The scheme pays one grant per property. Social housing, most new builds and properties that have already had government funding for a heat pump or biomass boiler are excluded. The installer must be MCS certified, applies for the grant on the owner’s behalf, and must commission and install the heat pump within 120 days of applying.

The date question you should ask

The pages read for this guide give the window as 21 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. They do not say whether the date that counts is the application, the installation, or the commissioning. Ask your installer which date the scheme applies, and get the answer in writing. The 120 day installation period means an application made near the end of the window runs well past it.

This guide does not state when the scheme itself ends, because that was not confirmed in the sources read.

What happens to the extra £1,500 afterwards

On the GOV.UK wording, it stops, and the home is treated like any other eligible property at £7,500. Nothing read for this guide says the uplift will be extended, and nothing says it will not. Plan on the lower figure and treat any extension as a bonus.

VAT is a separate date. The 0% rate on installing heat pumps in homes runs until 31 March 2027, and 5% applies from 1 April 2027 (VAT Notice 708/6). Work quoted before and finished after that date is a question for the installer and HMRC rules, not something to assume.

Worked example (modelled, not a real project)

Inputs: a rented three bedroom house needing 12,000kWh of heat a year (this site’s illustrative figure), a typical air source heat pump at £12,000 before grant (Energy Saving Trust, updated 23 September 2026), and the Ofgem cap electricity rate of 26.32p per kWh from 1 October to 31 December 2026. Standing charges are left out.

Capital, by heating type

Current heating	Grant	Landlord net cost
Oil or LPG, no mains gas, inside the window	£9,000	about £3,000
Oil or LPG, no mains gas, after the window	£7,500	about £4,500
Direct electric, off gas	£7,500	about £4,500

Running cost for a direct electric home (assuming electric heaters are 100% efficient)

Heating	Electricity used	Yearly cost
Direct electric	12,000kWh	£3,158
Heat pump, SCOP 3.0	4,000kWh	£1,053
Heat pump, SCOP 3.5	3,429kWh	£902

For a direct electric home the modelled tenant saving is around £2,100 to £2,250 a year, which is large because the starting point is expensive. An oil or LPG comparison is not modelled here, because fuel prices vary by supplier and week and no verified current figure was available. Get the last twelve months of delivery invoices from the tenant or from your own records and divide by the heat the home needed.

Why off gas homes are the strongest case

The heat pump arithmetic works best where the alternative is expensive. On the price cap, a unit of electricity costs about 3.3 times a unit of mains gas. Off gas homes cannot compare against cheap mains gas, so the comparison is against oil, LPG or direct electric, and a heat pump often compares better there. Whatever the fuel, a proper heat loss calculation matters.

When this is NOT the right answer

• The fabric is poor. A heat pump sized to a draughty, uninsulated home will be large, costly to run and may disappoint. Insulation first can be the better order.
• The tenant has no way to pay the bills. A home that is cheap for you and costly for them can produce arrears.
• The property sits in a conservation area or is listed. Planning limits apply, and Article 4 directions can remove permitted development rights. Check with the local council.
• The fuel supply contract is in the tenant’s name or tied to a lease. Settle who holds it before you plan the work.

Talking to the tenant

Tell the tenant what is changing before the installer arrives. An off gas home often has a tank or cylinders that the tenant has been filling themselves, so the end of deliveries, the new electricity load and any change to the electricity tariff are all things they will want to hear from you, in writing, with dates.

Next step

Test your own numbers in the heat pump landlord calculator, or send an enquiry through the quote page and relevant independent firms contact you, no charge to you and no obligation. Read the scheme rules for landlords first if you want the detail.