Statistics from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) show that September 2024 was the second highest month for boiler upgrade scheme (BUS) voucher applications since the scheme began.
The total 3,223 applications in September across all technology types was a 12% increase on the previous month and nearly triple the number received in September 2023, when 1,184 applications were made. DESNZ attributed the preceding year’s slump to the previous government announcing an increase in grant levels to begin in October 2023.
As such, it states that potential applicants waited, seeing the highest ever volume of applications in October 2023, the only month since BUS began that outpaced September 2024.
Up to the end of September 2024, 55,095 BUS voucher applications have been received, the majority of which (97%) were for air source heat pumps. A total of 46,983 vouchers have been issued up to the end of September this year, 8% more issued than the month before.
The number of vouchers issued in September 2024 (2,154) was more than double the volume issued in September 2023 (1,145). September this year saw the highest ever number of redemption applications and there were 1,882 grants paid.
Of the total 34,438 installations with BUS grants paid, the largest proportion (50%) replaced gas systems, followed by oil (19%).
The statistics have been published in the wake of the government’s autumn budget, which promises an uptick in BUS funding as part of a broader £3.4 billion commitment across the next three years towards domestic energy efficiency improvements and decarbonisation.
At the beginning of the month (2 October), energy secretary Ed Miliband permitted Ofgem, which oversees the scheme, to overallocate BUS vouchers by up to £50 million in this financial year, to a total of £200 million.
The move is intended to provide certainty that vouchers will continue to be available for the remainder of the financial year.
However, some criticisms of the budget pointed out the absence of the Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM). With an initial launch date expected to be 1 April 2024, the scheme’s implementation was called into question, however, when multiple reports cited fears over a ‘boiler tax’ unwittingly caused by the scheme.
This would not be the result of the mechanism, rather price hikes on the behalf of manufacturers. The CHMM would require heat pump installations to make up a 4% equivalent of manufacturer gas boiler sales in the first year, increasing to 6% in the mechanism’s second year.
According to DESNZ figures, the median cost of an air source heat pump since the start of the scheme has been £13,000 and a ground source heat pump costs £25,000, both including the grant value.
