The free boiler scheme: what is true in 2026

In brief

No current national scheme pays for a new gas boiler. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme puts £7,500 towards a heat pump instead, rising to up to £9,000 off the gas grid.
Higher earners pair that grant with the Warm Homes Loan, which carries a grant of up to 20% of the loan and lends up to £20,000 for an air source heat pump.
A genuinely free heating system runs through the means-tested Warm Homes: Local Grant for lower-income households; the old ECO4 free boiler grant closes on 31 December 2026.

Searches for a free boiler scheme keep climbing, and the honest answer is an awkward one: no current government scheme in England pays for a brand-new gas boiler. The grants that once swapped a broken boiler for a working one are closing down. What has taken their place funds a heat pump, through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant and the Warm Homes Loan, or fully funds low-carbon heating for lower-income homes through a means-tested council grant. The money is real. It just does not buy the thing most people picture when they type those three words.

So the useful question is not whether free help exists. It is which of the three routes you actually fall into.

What the phrase is really pointing at

"Free boiler scheme" is a leftover from a different era of policy, when energy suppliers were obliged to replace inefficient boilers in low-income homes at no cost to the household. That world is ending. Three separate things now sit behind the same search, and they suit very different people.

The first is a grant towards a heat pump, open to almost any homeowner. The second is a means-tested grant that can cover a whole heating upgrade for lower-income households. The third is the old supplier-funded boiler grant, which is winding down with nothing quite like it coming after. Conflating them is how people waste an application on the wrong door.

No scheme buys a new gas boiler

This is the part worth being blunt about. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the main national grant for home heating, does not fund gas boilers at all. It funds air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and, for rural homes off the gas grid, biomass boilers. The whole design is to move homes off gas, so a like-for-like gas swap is exactly what it will not pay for.

If your gas boiler has simply died and you want another one, no grant covers that. What a grant will do is take a large chunk out of a heat pump instead. Our page on heat pump grants lays out what qualifies and how the application runs.

The heat pump route: grant plus loan

For most homeowners, this is the real answer behind the search. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives you £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump. Homes off the gas grid that are replacing oil or LPG can get up to £9,000 under the notice that took effect on 21 July 2026. That grant lands as a discount on the installer's quote, so you never handle the cash.

The grant rarely covers the full job. That is where the Warm Homes Loan Scheme comes in. It lets you borrow the balance at a reduced rate, because the government pays the lender a grant of up to 20% of the loan, and it lends up to £20,000 for an air source heat pump. Take the grant first, borrow the rest. For a household that can afford a monthly repayment, that combination is what turns a heat pump from a wish into a fitted system.

The genuinely free route: the Warm Homes: Local Grant

There is one route where "free" is accurate, and it is not open to everyone. The Warm Homes: Local Grant is a means-tested, council-delivered grant aimed at lower-income households and homes in fuel poverty. It can fully fund insulation and low-carbon heating for an eligible property, with no loan attached.

Eligibility turns on household income and the home's energy rating rather than on which boiler you have. If your income is low and your home is poorly rated, this is the door to knock on first, and it is closer to the old "free boiler" idea than anything else still running. If your income sits above the threshold, the grant-plus-loan route above is the honest option.

ECO4, the old free boiler grant, is closing

Much of the "free boiler scheme" traffic is really old memory of ECO4, the Energy Company Obligation. That is the scheme that funded boiler replacements and first-time central heating for low-income households, paid for through energy bills rather than by the taxpayer. It is being shut down.

ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026, and there is no ECO5 or successor supplier obligation coming after it. Support for low-income homes moves instead to grant-funded programmes like the Local Grant. If you have been waiting on an ECO4 boiler, read our note on how ECO4 is being replaced before you count on it, because new applications are unlikely to complete in time.

Not the Warm Home Discount

One more thing to clear up, because the names blur. The Warm Home Discount is not a boiler scheme. It is a £150 rebate on your electricity bill for households on certain benefits, and it installs nothing. If you were hoping for help with a heating system, that rebate will not do it. Worth knowing so you do not apply for the wrong thing and assume you are covered.

Which route pays for what

Route	Who it suits	What it funds	What you pay
Boiler Upgrade Scheme	Most homeowners	Heat pump; off-grid biomass	Grant of £7,500, you fund the rest
Warm Homes Loan	Owner-occupiers, landlords	Heat pump, solar, battery	Reduced-rate loan to £20,000
Warm Homes: Local Grant	Lower-income households	Insulation and heating	Nothing, if eligible
ECO4 (closing)	Low-income households	Boiler, heating, insulation	Ends 31 December 2026

Two of those four cost you nothing if you qualify, and both are means-tested. The other two ask you to fund part of the work in exchange for a warmer, cheaper-to-run home. None of them hands over a new gas boiler.

Common questions

Is there still a free boiler scheme in 2026?

Not in the way most people mean it. The old grants that swapped a broken boiler for a new one are closing, and nothing on offer buys a new gas boiler. Lower-income households can still get low-carbon heating fully funded through the means-tested Warm Homes: Local Grant.

Does any grant pay for a new gas boiler?

No. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme funds heat pumps, and off the gas grid a biomass boiler, because the point is to move homes off gas. A like-for-like gas boiler replacement is not covered by any current national grant or loan scheme in England.

Who can get a heating system fully funded?

Lower-income households and those in fuel poverty, through the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which is delivered by councils and is means-tested. It can fully fund insulation and low-carbon heating for eligible homes. Higher earners use the grant-plus-loan route instead and pay something towards the cost.

Is the free boiler scheme the same as the Warm Home Discount?

No. The Warm Home Discount is a £150 rebate on your electricity bill for households on certain benefits. It never installs anything. If you were hoping for help with a heating system, that rebate is a different scheme and will not replace a boiler or fund a heat pump.

If you came here for a free gas boiler, the truthful takeaway is to stop looking for one and start with your income and your home's rating. Those two facts decide whether you land on the free Local Grant or the grant-plus-loan route. The funding wizard asks for exactly those and points you at the door that opens, so your one application goes to the right place.