Are gas boilers being banned? What the heat pump shift means for heating engineers

Are gas boilers being banned? People ask Google often enough that it suggests the question.

For a home that already has one, no. Nothing in England or Scotland stops a working gas boiler being replaced with another, and no law sets a date when that changes. The shift to heat pumps is real. It's coming through new homes, grants and running costs, not a ban on the boiler in the kitchen.

Here's where each stands in November 2026, and what I think it means for a heating engineer's next ten years.

England: no ban, a nudge

The government's Warm Homes Plan, published in January 2026, puts £15 billion into home upgrades over this Parliament. I read the whole thing for a ban, and there isn't one. There's no end date for gas boilers in existing homes. Instead, it says heat pumps should become "the desirable and natural choice for households replacing an existing heating system at the end of its life".

That's a long way from a ban, and it has a long way to go. By the plan's own figure, 86% of households in England use a gas-fired main heating system. Its ambition is over 450,000 heat pump installations a year by 2030.

New homes are where the rules bite. England's Future Homes Standard comes into force on 24 March 2027. It's designed so that new homes are "built with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency". They shouldn't need retrofitting to reach zero carbon. A building notice or plans deposited before that date keep the old rules, as long as work starts before 24 March 2028.

Scotland: new builds first, a bill to come

Scotland got there first on new buildings. Since 1 April 2024, gas and oil boilers haven't been allowed as the main heating in them. In the Scottish Government's words, they "cannot be used as a mains heating system".

For existing homes, there's a draft bill. Published in November 2025, it sets a target to replace direct-emission heating in Scotland's buildings by 2045, as far as reasonably practicable. That's softer than what the government consulted on in 2023, which was a prohibition after 2045. The bill wasn't introduced before the 2026 election. The Scottish Government's programme for 2026 to 2031 lists it among its first-year bills. It isn't law, and nobody in Scotland has to take out a working gas or oil boiler.

The grants

England and Wales. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump. Until March 2027 there's £1,500 more for a home heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection. An air-to-air heat pump gets £2,500. A hybrid, a heat pump working alongside a gas boiler, gets nothing. The scheme has £2.7 billion to 2030. Ofgem counted 96,611 grants paid between its start in May 2022 and the end of September 2026.

The installer does the paperwork. GOV.UK tells the customer to get quotes from MCS certified installers, and that the installer applies on their behalf. The grant comes off the price, and it's shown on the quote and the invoice.

Scotland. Home Energy Scotland offers a grant of up to £7,500 towards a heat pump, with £1,500 more for rural and island homes. An interest-free loan of up to £7,500 is available on top. Replacing an existing heat pump gets the loan but not the grant.

The sum the customer does

Running costs decide a lot of these conversations, so it's worth having the numbers.

Under Ofgem's price cap for October to December 2026, a unit of electricity costs 26.32p and a unit of gas 7.97p. Electricity is 3.3 times dearer.

A heat pump closes most of that gap by making more heat than the electricity it uses. A government-funded trial installed 742 heat pumps, and the median air source system gave 2.8 units of heat for each unit of electricity. On that figure, a unit of heat from a heat pump costs about 9.4p. A unit of gas costs 7.97p, before the boiler's own losses. That's my arithmetic, on a trial's median, and every house is different.

The government knows the price gap is the problem. The Warm Homes Plan says it has "removed some policy costs from electricity bills" and will consult on going further.

What it means for the work

This part is my reading of the above, not anybody's forecast.

Most of the work is still gas, and will be for years. Eighty-six per cent of homes in England heat with it. Grant-funded heat pumps came to fewer than 100,000 in just over four years. Every one of those gas boilers will need repairing and, sooner or later, replacing. A landlord's gas safety check is still due at intervals of not more than twelve months. None of that needs a decision from anybody.

Hydrogen isn't coming to the rescue. The Warm Homes Plan says hydrogen "is not yet a proven technology for home heating". Any role, it says, "would come later and likely be limited". I wouldn't plan a business around it.

The growth is in three places. New homes, in Scotland now and in England from 2027. Homes off the gas grid, where the extra £1,500 is aimed. And replacements in homes where the customer wants the grant and the sums work.

The engineers with the most work in 2035 will be the ones who can do both. The plan talks about "upskilling existing heating engineers", and major manufacturers are already offering installers incentives for heat pump work. A customer who rings about a boiler and leaves with the option of either is a customer who doesn't need to ring anyone else.

Getting into heat pumps from gas

MCS first. The grant needs an MCS certified installer. MCS lets a business certify for installation only, and work with a certified designer. The Energy Saving Trust's guidance for installers says that route "might appeal to gas boiler installers who team up with a certified designer".

F-gas, depending on the kit. A monobloc heat pump keeps its refrigerant sealed inside the outdoor unit. A split system has refrigerant pipework run on site. Work on the refrigerant circuit needs F-gas qualifications, from one of the bodies GOV.UK lists: City & Guilds, BESA or LCL Awards.

Help with the cost. In England, the Heat Training Grant pays up to £500 towards an eligible heat pump course, usually as a discount from the training provider. Sole traders and businesses of up to 250 people qualify if they're in a competent person scheme for heating. Gas Safe Register is on GOV.UK's list. The government has set aside £7 million a year for it from 2026 to 2029.

Your Gas Safe registration doesn't go anywhere. You'll still need it for every gas job, and what it costs to keep is its own post.

Where grafter.ly fits

grafter.ly doesn't apply for grants or certify installations.

It's where the jobs live. A heat pump is a bigger job than a boiler swap. A quote in grafter.ly can take a deposit when the customer accepts it, and you can invoice each stage after that. Taking deposits covers how much to take, and stage payments which rules protect you. The annual service, gas or heat pump, can be set to repeat on the customer's page. It lands in your list as a new job before it's due.

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Sources. England: the Warm Homes Plan (21 January 2026, corrected 18 March 2026); the Future Homes and Buildings Standards circular (24 March 2026); the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's pages on what you can get and how to apply; and Ofgem's monthly scheme update (13 October 2026). Scotland: the New Build Heat Standard factsheet and the regulations; the Cabinet Secretary's letter and announcement of the draft bill (18 November 2025); the 2023 consultation; the Programme for Government 2026 to 2031; and Home Energy Scotland's grants and loans. Running costs: Ofgem's price cap rates for October to December 2026, and the Electrification of Heat Demonstration results (Energy Systems Catapult, March 2023). Skills: the Energy Saving Trust's installer toolkit; GOV.UK on F-gas qualifications and the Heat Training Grant. Gas safety checks: the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 36. All checked 9 November 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Grants, prices and plans change. GOV.UK, Home Energy Scotland and Ofgem have the current figures on the day you quote.