Skip to content

Green heating grants 'available next year' in NI

John CampbellBusiness editor, BBC News NI
Getty Images An engineer - a man wearing a black T-shirt - wipes the outside of a black heat pump with a cloth. To the right of the picture the heat pump abuts the wall of a property with the pipes and electrical components visibleGetty Images
The scheme will require new legislation and is "likely" to be launched in 2027

Households in Northern Ireland may finally be able to get grants to install environmentally friendly heating systems next year, Stormont's economy department has said.

Similar schemes have been operating in the rest of the UK since 2022 and in the Republic of Ireland since 2018.

The department has been consulting on options for Northern Ireland and said it now plans to bring forward a firm proposal this year.

It added the scheme will require new legislation and is therefore "likely" to be launched in 2027.

Like the schemes elsewhere in the UK the grants will be focused on heat pumps.

Heat pumps run on electricity instead of gas or oil. They warm buildings by absorbing and amplifying heat from the air, ground, or water.

They are widely seen as the best way of cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and helping to achieve net zero goals.

Diagram showing "How an air source heat pump works". It shows a sketched house and a heat pump alongside. The heat pump is then enlarged on the right of the picture and shows blue arrows (representing winter) entering and leaving, left to right through the heat pump. And then orange arrows (representing summer) entering and leaving right to left of the heat pump. Below the labels read: "Winter: Heat pump absorbs heat form outside and releases it inside" and below "Summer: Acts like an air conditioner and moves heat from the air inside to outside, cooling the interior".

In GB households can get grants of £7,500 to install a heat pump system. An additional £1,500 grant is available in some rural areas of Scotland.

In the Republic of Ireland a total grant of up to €12,500 (£10,870) is available.

It is not yet clear what level the Northern Ireland grant will be set at although the department has given some indications how the scheme would work.

It said it is "minded to provide a one-off capital grant with potential for differing amounts for eligible technologies".

It has also suggested that any scheme will be open to all rather than being targeted at lower income households.

It said: "A future support scheme will be made fair to all and is not intended to target or prioritise any particular groups of people or residential properties.

"A one-off straight forward grant as opposed to tiered support would reduce administration costs as well as allowing the scheme to remain accessible to all and simple to understand and deliver."

Trending Now