Boiler Upgrade Scheme 2026 Adds Thermal Storage
Sometimes the smallest legal changes tell you where energy policy is going next. According to legislation.gov.uk, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment to the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2026 were made on 21 October 2026 and came into force on 22 October 2026. Their main job is to update the law around low-carbon heating. When we strip away the formal language, one change stands out. Thermal energy storage systems are now added to the list of technologies recognised in section 100(4) of the Energy Act 2008. That may sound technical, but it is exactly the kind of wording that can shape what government support looks like later on.
To see why that matters, it helps to step back. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, often shortened to BUS, was created by 2022 regulations for England and Wales. It offers grants towards heat pumps and biomass boilers used for space and water heating in homes and small non-domestic buildings. The scheme is designed to encourage cleaner heating, but with an important limit. The grant support is for eligible installations that do not replace an existing renewable heating system. **What this means:** the policy is aimed at moving buildings away from fossil-fuel heating, not paying again for a renewable system that is already in place.
Thermal energy storage can sound more complicated than it is. Put simply, it is a way of storing heat so it can be used later rather than only at the moment it is produced. In the new wording, these systems count only where the stored energy comes wholly or partly from a renewable source. That condition matters because the amendment is not a blank cheque for every type of heat storage. It keeps the focus on cleaner energy. If you are trying to understand how a heat pump system or another low-carbon setup can work more efficiently across the day, storage is one of the pieces that can make the whole arrangement more practical.
The second change is less visible to households, but it is still worth knowing about. Regulation 22 of the 2022 scheme rules has been adjusted so the administrator can take one action, or a combination of actions, when dealing with money that needs to be recovered under the scheme. The total recovered still cannot be more than the amount due. The paperwork must also be clearer. Where relevant, a notice can now set out the amount that must be repaid and the amount recovered by offsetting. Offsetting usually means setting one sum against another, rather than asking for a separate payment. **In plain English:** the government has tightened the wording on how scheme money can be sorted out if a payment later needs to be corrected.
This is also a useful example of how devolution shows up in everyday law. Regulation 2, which adds thermal energy storage to the Energy Act 2008, extends to England and Wales and to Scotland. Regulation 3, which changes the Boiler Upgrade Scheme rules, extends only to England and Wales. The route into law matters too. The instrument says the draft was approved by both Houses of Parliament. It also says Scottish Ministers gave their consent to the making of the regulations, and Welsh Ministers were consulted on regulation 3. If you are teaching how UK law works, this is a helpful case study in shared and separate responsibilities.
The regulations were signed on 21 October 2026 by Martin McCluskey, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The explanatory note describes the changes as minor amendments, which helps explain why there was no full regulatory impact assessment. The official reason given is that no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. That does not mean the amendment is meaningless. It means ministers see it as a tidy-up rather than a dramatic policy launch. But tidy-ups matter. They show us which technologies government is starting to recognise more clearly, and they can make future support schemes easier to shape.
If you are reading this as a householder, the key point is not that a brand-new grant appeared overnight on 22 October 2026. The grant scheme was already there. What has changed is the legal wording around recognised technology and the rules used to recover payments when something needs to be put right. **What it means:** the Boiler Upgrade Scheme still centres on heat pumps and biomass boilers, but the law is beginning to make more room for the idea of storing renewable heat as well as generating it. For anyone following the move away from gas boilers, that is a small change with a wider lesson: technical legislation can quietly shape the choices people have at home.