Heat pumps for landlords in Doncaster

What the 2021 Census says about renting in Doncaster

Doncaster has 133,480 households, and 25,941 of them rent privately. That is 19.4%, below the 22.8% found in Newcastle but a large enough market that the borough has a real mix of tenants, house types and heating.

The homes themselves are mostly houses. Semi-detached homes make up 45.5% of the stock, detached 24.1% and terraced 21.1%. Flats are only 6.4%, plus 1.3% in converted buildings. For a landlord that matters: a house usually has outdoor space for an outdoor unit, and the planning rules for a house are easier to meet than for a block of flats.

Heating is dominated by mains gas, at 82.3% of households. The rest is a mix: 3.8% electric only, 0.9% oil, 0.8% with no central heating and 0.5% on district heating. These are household figures for all tenures, not only rentals, so use them as a guide to the borough, not to your own street.

Which grant applies: £7,500 or £9,000

Most Doncaster rentals have a gas boiler, and for those the Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives £7,500 toward an air source or ground source heat pump. The higher £9,000 is the £7,500 plus £1,500, and it has a narrow test. Landlords are eligible to apply, because the scheme covers a property you own and rent out to tenants.

The £9,000 test has three parts, and all three must be true:

Test	What it means for a rental
Fuel replaced	The system being removed runs on oil or LPG
Gas connection	The property has no mains gas connection
Timing	The work falls between 21 July 2026 and 31 March 2027

A few cases catch landlords out. A rental with electric heaters or storage heaters does not meet the oil or LPG part, so it gets £7,500. A property that burns oil but sits on a street with a gas main, and has a connection to it, fails the connection part. The grant is paid once per property, hybrids are not funded, and the install must happen within 120 days of the application, which an MCS installer makes on your behalf.

The rural fringes of the borough

The Census gives a sense of scale. At 0.9% of households, oil heating covers roughly 1,200 households across the whole borough, which is small but higher than in most of the cities this site covers. Those homes sit mainly outside the main built-up areas, where gas pipes do not reach every house.

If you rent out a farmhouse, a barn conversion or a village cottage on oil or LPG, the £9,000 test is worth checking first. Ask your installer to confirm the no mains gas connection point in writing, because a gas main nearby is not the same as a connection to the property. This guide does not publish oil or LPG prices, so it cannot tell you how a heat pump compares on running cost for your property. Work that out from your own fuel bills.

Rural rentals also tend to be larger and older, with solid walls or less insulation. Heat demand is higher, which can push the heat pump size and cost up. Fabric work such as loft insulation may come first.

What it costs and how running costs compare

The Energy Saving Trust puts a typical air source heat pump at around £12,000 before the grant. A £7,500 grant leaves around £4,500; a £9,000 grant leaves around £3,000. Real quotes vary with the house.

Worked example (modelled, not a real project). An illustrative semi-detached rental using 12,000kWh of heat a year, on the Ofgem cap from 1 October to 31 December 2026 (electricity 26.32p per kWh, gas 7.97p per kWh), with a gas boiler at 90% efficiency. Standing charges are left out.

Heating	Energy used	Annual energy cost
Gas boiler, 90% efficient	13,333kWh gas	about £1,063
Heat pump, SCOP 3.0	4,000kWh electricity	about £1,053
Heat pump, SCOP 3.5	3,429kWh electricity	about £902

At a low efficiency, a heat pump on mains gas saves almost nothing. The saving comes from a good installation and a well insulated home. In a gas rental the case rests more on EPC and grant timing than on bills.

Licensing and the Warm Homes: Local Grant

Doncaster is listed as a successful local authority for Warm Homes: Local Grant, in its own row with no partner authorities named. The grant is for lower-income households in EPC D to G homes, including privately rented ones. A landlord’s first property can be fully funded, from the second property the landlord contributes 50%, and the landlord declares no rent rise because of the funded work. EPC F and G rentals need a registered exemption first. Funding runs to 31 March 2028, but whether Doncaster is taking landlord applications now is a question for the council.

On licensing, Doncaster Council runs selective licensing in the Hexthorpe area, operating from 1 March 2022 for up to five years. The Edlington scheme ended on 6 February 2023. Additional licensing for smaller HMOs in central Doncaster ran from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2023. If your rental falls inside a licensed area, check the licence conditions with the council before changing the heating.

The council’s wider plan is the Environment and Sustainability Strategy 2020 to 2030, which aims for carbon neutrality by 2040 and an 85% cut in emissions by 2030 against a 2005 baseline.

Planning, conservation areas and Article 4

In England a heat pump is usually permitted development, with a noise limit of 37.0 dB(A), one unit on a house that is not detached and two on a detached house. The limits are tighter in conservation areas and for listed buildings. Doncaster has 46 conservation areas, so check the postcode before you plan a front or side placement.

Article 4 directions can remove permitted development rights. Doncaster’s published directions include one on change of use from a house to a small HMO, in force from 14 October 2019. That one concerns use, not heat pumps, but it shows why checking the council’s Article 4 map is sensible.

When a heat pump is not the right answer

A heat pump is the wrong first step where the house is draughty and uninsulated, where the EPC is already C or the property is let on short terms, or where the tenant on a gas boiler has low bills and the extra running cost would fall on them. The current minimum is EPC E. EPC C by 1 October 2030 is a plan, with regulations not yet made, so do not rush an install for a deadline that is not law. Use the heat pump landlord calculator for your own numbers, or send an enquiry and relevant independent firms will contact you, with no charge and no obligation.