Ian Rippin, CEO of MCS, comments on the two-year anniversary of the BUS:
“The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) launched in May 2022, offering homeowners and small business owners in England and Wales funding towards the installation of a low-carbon heating system, such as a heat pump (initially £5,000, raised in 2023 to £7,500) or biomass (£5,000). The installation must be MCS certified to qualify for the grant.
“As we approach the two-year anniversary of the BUS, the figures show a growing number of homeowners are taking advantage of the incentive to make the switch to low-carbon heating. As of the end of March 2024, government figures show there have been 37,879 applications for the scheme – a 46% increase in March 2024 compared to March 2023. Looking at the quarter as a whole (Jan-Mar 2024), applications are up by 56% compared to the same period in 2023.
“This is reflected in the MCS data, which shows that March 2024 was the second-best month on record for certified heat pump installations, with more than 4,500 installed in the month alone. In fact, the average number of certified monthly heat pump installations has risen by 30% between 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, which is particularly significant given that 2023 was the best year in Scheme history for the technology.
“Clearly, there is still some way to go in order to achieve the target of 600,000 annual heat pump installations by 2028, but with the BUS running until March of the same year, consumer demand looks set to continue rising. Alongside this, there must be a strong pipeline of competent, certified contractors to deliver the installations, and MCS data shows that the number of certified heat pump contractors has grown by more than 250 over the past 12 months, with almost 70% of those registered for the BUS scheme. This highlights the impact that the BUS is having as we move towards a low carbon future.”
MCS holds the most comprehensive repository of data on the uptake of certified small-scale renewable technologies across the UK on The MCS Data Dashboard. For near-real-time updates on renewable installations, you can sign up for free to The MCS Data Dashboard here.
