Only 60 households applied for a £2,500 government grant to install air conditioning in their homes. Zero accredited installers are available nationwide to fit the systems. That is not a niche problem, it is a warning for every homeowner banking on the UK’s heat-pump revolution.
As reported by The i Paper, the scheme was meant to help homes cope with rising summer temperatures. Instead, it exposed a basic truth: grants are useless without people to do the work.
Who qualifies, and who doesn’t
The air-con grant is available to households with a pre-existing medical need, a GP letter confirming vulnerability to heat. The system must be a fixed, reversible heat pump that also provides heating, not a portable unit. Maximum grant: £2,500. But when applicants looked for an installer, they found no one. The government’s own online directory listed zero certified firms. Ofgem, which administers the scheme, confirmed to The i Paper that no businesses have registered to deliver it.
The catch is that air-conditioning installation requires specialised skills: refrigerant handling, F-gas certification, and knowledge of building regulations for external units. Most UK heating engineers do not hold these. The grant pays for the equipment but not for training, so firms see no incentive to upskill for a scheme with tiny demand.
What it costs a typical 3-bed semi
A typical whole-house air-con system for a 3-bedroom semi-detached house costs between £4,000 and £7,000 installed, depending on the number of indoor units and the complexity of routing pipes. The £2,500 grant covers roughly half that, not enough to make the job profitable for an installer who must invest in new training and certification. Compare that to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for heat pumps: £7,500 grant, with installation costs typically £10,000–£14,000 for an air-source heat pump. That margin leaves room for the installer to earn, which is why heat-pump schemes have attracted more firms, though still not enough.
Energy Saving Trust figures show that heat-pump installations across the UK reached about 60,000 in 2024, far short of the government’s target of 600,000 per year by 2028. The installer bottleneck is the main reason. Ofgem’s latest data reveals that 35% of local authority areas have fewer than five MCS-certified heat-pump installers. In rural Wales and the Scottish Highlands, the figure drops to one or none.
What this means for your EPC and bills
If you are planning to improve your home’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating, essential for selling or renting from 2028 under the proposed minimum C rating, you need a clear path to installation. A heat pump can lift a D-rated home to a C, but only if you can find an installer to fit it. The air-con grant fiasco shows that even well-funded schemes can fail if the supply side is ignored.
Homeowners should take three practical steps. First, check the MCS Installer Database (mcsinstallers.co.uk) before applying for any grant. If there are no installers within 20 miles, reconsider the technology. Second, ask for a site survey and written quote before submitting a grant application, some installers are booking into late 2025. Third, consider a hybrid system: a heat pump for most of the year, retaining a gas boiler for the coldest weeks. This reduces the installer skill requirement and may be easier to find a fitter for.
But the deeper lesson is for policymakers. The £2,500 air-con grant is not a one-off failure. It is a symptom of a system that designs grants in Whitehall and assumes the market will magically supply labour. It will not. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has similarly struggled: only 30,000 vouchers were redeemed in 2024 out of 50,000 issued, partly because homeowners could not find installers to complete the work within the three-month voucher validity period.
Households on standard variable tariffs can apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme through gov.uk from 1 April 2025. Eligibility closes on 31 March 2028. But before you apply, call every installer within 30 miles. If they are booked out, write to your MP and ask why the government is spending millions on grants but nothing on training the people who will fit them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, if you have a GP-confirmed medical need for cooling. But the scheme has no accredited installers listed, so you may struggle to find anyone to fit the system. Check the MCS Installer Database first.
Heat pumps provide both heating and cooling, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers £7,500 towards installation. However, installer availability is still limited in many areas. Get a site survey and quote before applying.
