If you’ve searched “ashp grants north east” or “free air source heat pumps north east”, you’ve probably already waded through a dozen ads promising a free heat pump with no small print. Here’s the straight version from a North East installer: in 2026 there are three real routes — a £7,500-£9,000 grant everyone eligible can use, a genuinely free route that only some households qualify for, and a 0% loan for the balance.
Who qualifies, at a glance:
- Every homeowner in England and Wales replacing a fossil fuel boiler: £7,500 off via the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).
- Oil or LPG households: £9,000 off from 21 July 2026 until end of March 2027.
- Households on means-tested benefits in an EPC D-G home: potentially a fully funded install through ECO4.
- Everyone else needing help with the balance: the Warm Homes Plan 0% loan, up to £30,000, launched January 2026.
Here’s how each one actually works for homes in Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Northumberland and Teesside.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme: £7,500 off — £9,000 for oil and LPG homes
The BUS is the workhorse grant, and it’s the one most North East households will use. The basics:
- £7,500 towards an air source heat pump, deducted directly from your installer’s quote. You never handle the money — the price you’re quoted is already net of the grant.
- From 21 July 2026, the grant rises to £9,000 for households replacing an oil or LPG system. The uplift runs until the end of March 2027 and covers England and Wales.
- You need to own the property and be replacing a fossil fuel system (gas, oil or LPG) or direct electric heating.
- There’s no income test and no benefits requirement — a detached house in Darras Hall qualifies the same as a terrace in Hendon.
The £9,000 uplift matters a lot in our patch. The North East has one of the biggest off-gas-grid populations in England — rural Northumberland (Rothbury, Wooler, Bellingham, the Tyne Valley) and swathes of County Durham run on oil or LPG. Those are precisely the homes where a heat pump saves the most, because oil and LPG are expensive fuels to displace. If you’re on oil and your boiler is on borrowed time, the window between 21 July 2026 and March 2027 is the best-funded moment there has ever been to switch.
One thing the BUS is not: free money you claim yourself. Grant claims are processed through the industry certification scheme — your installer makes the application, Ofgem emails you to confirm consent, and the voucher value comes off the invoice. More detail in our full Boiler Upgrade Scheme 2026 guide.
”Free heat pumps”: what’s genuinely free (ECO4) and what’s marketing
Let’s deal with the phrase doing all the work in those Facebook ads. When a company advertises “free air source heat pumps in the North East”, they almost always mean ECO4 — a supplier-funded scheme that can cover the full install cost, but only for households that pass both of these tests:
- Someone in the home receives a means-tested benefit — Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-based JSA or ESA, Income Support, Housing Benefit, or Child/Working Tax Credits.
- The property has an EPC rating of D, E, F or G — which, to be fair, describes a large share of the North East’s older terraced and semi-detached stock.
Pass both and yes, a genuinely free heat pump (often bundled with insulation) is a real possibility. The funding comes from energy supplier obligations, not from you.
Where the ads get dishonest is the implication that everyone gets a free heat pump. If you’re not on a qualifying benefit, or your home is already EPC C or better, ECO4 is not available to you — and any firm telling you otherwise is either fishing for your data or planning to disappoint you at survey stage. What you actually get is the BUS route: a heavily discounted install where you pay the balance. That balance is real money, and we’d rather tell you the number up front than after you’ve booked a survey.
If you think you might qualify for ECO4, say so when you get in touch — we’ll check eligibility before anyone drives out to you, and we’ll tell you straight if the BUS route is the honest fit instead. Our grants and funding page keeps the current schemes in one place.
The Warm Homes Plan 0% loan: up to £30,000, launched January 2026
The newest piece of the puzzle. The Warm Homes Plan’s 0% interest loan launched in January 2026, offering up to £30,000 towards home energy upgrades — heat pumps included.
This is the answer to the most common objection we hear in Sunderland and Middlesbrough living rooms: “the grant’s great, but I don’t have £4,000 sitting around for the balance.” With the loan, a typical 3-bed semi install works like this: quote £12,500, minus £7,500 BUS grant, leaves £5,000 — financed at 0% rather than found in savings. No interest means the heat pump’s running-cost savings versus an old oil or gas boiler start working for you from month one instead of servicing a lender.
It’s a loan, not a grant — you repay it, just without interest. But for households who were putting off the switch purely on upfront cost, it removes the last structural barrier.
What you’ll actually pay in the North East after the grant
Real numbers from AMP quotes across the NE, SR, DH, DL and TS postcode areas. Gross prices include the heat pump, cylinder, controls, installation and commissioning; the net columns show what you pay after each grant level.
| Property type | Typical system | Gross install cost | After £7,500 BUS | After £9,000 (oil/LPG) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-bed terrace / small semi | 5 kW | £9,500 - £11,500 | £2,000 - £4,000 | £500 - £2,500 |
| 3-bed semi | 7 - 8.5 kW | £11,000 - £13,500 | £3,500 - £6,000 | £2,000 - £4,500 |
| 4-bed detached | 10 - 12 kW | £13,000 - £16,000 | £5,500 - £8,500 | £4,000 - £7,000 |
| Large / rural off-gas | 12 - 16 kW | £15,000 - £19,000 | £7,500 - £11,500 | £6,000 - £10,000 |
Two honest caveats. First, radiator upgrades: heat pumps run at lower flow temperatures, and older systems sometimes need three to six radiators upsized — typically £900-£2,400 on top if so. We tell you at survey, not on install day. Second, the ranges reflect real North East housing: a 1930s semi in Low Fell with solid walls needs more careful design than a 2015 estate house in Ingleby Barwick, and the price reflects the work, not the postcode.
For the full system-design detail — sizing, cylinder options, what a good install looks like — see our heat pumps page. Teesside households can find local specifics on our Teesside heat pumps page.
How AMP handles the paperwork (so you don’t have to)
The grant system works, but it isn’t self-service. Here’s what we take off your plate on every North East install:
- Eligibility check first. Before any survey, we confirm which route fits: BUS at £7,500, the £9,000 oil/LPG uplift, or an ECO4 referral if you qualify for full funding.
- EPC check. We look up your certificate and flag anything that affects the application before it becomes a problem.
- Heat loss survey and system design. A Heat Geek-trained engineer sizes the system room by room — the single biggest factor in whether a heat pump performs in a North East winter. Our electrical work is NICEIC certified.
- The grant application itself. Grant claims are processed through the industry certification scheme; we prepare and submit the application, you confirm consent when Ofgem emails you, and the grant value is already deducted from your fixed quote.
- DNO notification. The paperwork with Northern Powergrid to connect the heat pump — handled, included.
- Commissioning and handover. Full setup, controls walkthrough, and the documentation pack for your records and any future house sale.
You get one fixed price, net of the grant, before any work starts. No deposit, payment on completion — the same terms as every AMP install.
The short version
If you’re on oil or LPG anywhere in the North East, the £9,000 window from 21 July 2026 to end of March 2027 is the moment to move. If you’re on a means-tested benefit in an EPC D-G home, check ECO4 before paying anyone anything — the install may be genuinely free. Everyone else: £7,500 off, a 0% loan for the balance if you want it, and running-cost savings that stack up fastest in exactly the draughty, off-grid corners of Northumberland and Durham where heating bills hurt most.
Get a fixed heat pump quote → or call 0191 535 2711 — we’ll tell you which grant route fits before we book anything.
Related reading: Boiler Upgrade Scheme 2026 guide · Heat pumps service page · Heat pumps in Teesside · Grants and funding