The Budget 2026 document of 28 October 2026 keeps the Boiler Upgrade Scheme at £400 million in 2027-28, below the £600 million planned in the Warm Homes Plan, and saves £1 billion of Warm Homes Plan capital grants, GOV.UK shows.
History. No count: the orders in this Echo measure the reply to the watchdog, not the Budget. Signal points are counted from 50.
Hunch. Guardian sources said on 12 October that hundreds of millions of pounds will come out of the heat pump grant scheme to pay for defence.
The heat pump market resolves on the Budget documents on gov.uk: YES if from 17 October to the end of 28 October 2026 the government officially announces less money for the boiler upgrade scheme or other heat pump grants than planned before, such as a smaller scheme budget, a smaller grant per home or closing the scheme, and NO if it does not. BBC News and the Guardian settle it if the official pages are silent.
We looked for cases where a UK government used its power under the Climate Change Act to move the deadline for its reply to the climate watchdog. We found four such orders, one a year from 2022 to 2025, and none before 2022. Each time the reply came before the new deadline, between zero and five days early. Two of the four times, a new national climate plan came out on the same day. (legislation.gov.uk)