The table
| Borough | Heat pumps paid | Households | Per 1,000 | Owner-occupied | No gas meter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trafford | 265 | 96,267 | 2.8 | 69.0% | 10.02% |
| Stockport | 300 | 126,649 | 2.4 | 71.1% | 7.88% |
| Bury | 156 | 80,694 | 1.9 | 66.9% | 4.86% |
| Manchester | 357 | 214,735 | 1.7 | 37.2% | 25.01% |
| Rochdale | 142 | 90,225 | 1.6 | 60.3% | 4.70% |
| Bolton | 177 | 118,789 | 1.5 | 61.5% | 6.03% |
| Salford | 166 | 115,116 | 1.4 | 47.0% | 25.27% |
| Wigan | 194 | 143,102 | 1.4 | 66.4% | 3.82% |
| Oldham | 118 | 93,139 | 1.3 | 60.4% | 4.52% |
| Tameside | 118 | 99,524 | 1.2 | 60.8% | 4.65% |
| England and Wales | 96,185 | 24,783,199 | 3.9 | 61.6% | - |
- Trafford 2.8
- Stockport 2.4
- Bury 1.9
- Manchester 1.7
- Rochdale 1.6
- Bolton 1.5
- Salford 1.4
- Wigan 1.4
- Oldham 1.3
- Tameside 1.2
England and Wales: 3.9
DESNZ Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics to September 2026; ONS Census 2021.
Owners and grants
The two boroughs with the most owner-occupiers, Stockport (71.1%) and Trafford (69.0%), have the two highest rates. Bury, the third most owner-occupied, is third. At the other end, Tameside, Oldham and Wigan have the lowest rates, though Wigan's owner-occupation is high, which suggests housing and income play a part too. The published statistics give no reasons for any borough's figure, but the scheme's design points the same way: it is for owners and private landlords, and it pays part of the cost, not all of it.
Manchester: most in number, not in rate
Manchester has had 357 heat pumps paid for, more than any other borough, because it is by far the largest. Relative to households its rate, about 1.7 per 1,000, is fourth of the ten. With only 37.2% of households owning their home, most Manchester homes can only change through a landlord's decision.
A low region
The whole North West trails the national average: 7,976 heat pumps paid for out of 96,185 across England and Wales, and 40.3 applications per 10,000 households against 56.1 nationally. Greater Manchester's rate of about 1.7 per 1,000 households is well under half the England and Wales figure of about 3.9.
What the figures count
The counts are Boiler Upgrade Scheme vouchers paid, by the local authority of the property, from May 2022 to September 2026. They leave out heat pumps paid for privately, through Greater Manchester's Warm Homes: Local Grant, through social landlords' programmes or through earlier schemes. The number of heat pumps actually working in each borough is therefore higher than shown.
The grant
- £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, the same in every borough.
- £9,000 for oil- or LPG-heated homes with no mains gas, for applications properly made by 31 March 2027.
- Claimed by an MCS certified installer, who takes it off the price.
- Not for social housing or most new builds, and not for a home that has already had government funding for a heat pump.
Reading your borough's figure
A low rate means heat pumps are still uncommon locally, not that the grant is harder to get. Where few have been fitted, ask an installer how many similar homes they have done, check their MCS certification and consumer code, and ask for the heat-loss survey and running-cost estimate in writing. The statistics are updated monthly; the sources page links to the release used here.
The core and the suburbs
Put the ten boroughs in two groups and the gap is plain. Stockport, Trafford and Bury, the most owner-occupied, have had far more heat pumps paid for per household than Manchester, Salford and the terraced towns to the north and east. For households in the core, Greater Manchester's area-based Warm Homes: Local Grant, which can pay the full cost in selected areas, may matter more than the Boiler Upgrade Scheme ever has.