Bolton · Bury · Manchester · Oldham · Rochdale · Salford · Stockport · Tameside · Trafford · Wigan
Greater Manchester heat pumps: flats, terraces and area schemes
A third of Manchester's households live in flats and more than a third of Oldham's in terraces. What the planning rules allow on each, how Greater Manchester's area-based Warm Homes scheme works, and how each borough compares.
An independent guide by SEO-DONS LTD. We are not installers and we refer you to no one.
- Manchester 67.0% mains gas only 18.3% electric only · 25.01% without a gas meter 1.7 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Salford 69.4% mains gas only 18.1% electric only · 25.27% without a gas meter 1.4 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Stockport 82.1% mains gas only 6.8% electric only · 7.88% without a gas meter 2.4 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Trafford 81.9% mains gas only 7.9% electric only · 10.02% without a gas meter 2.8 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Wigan 83.9% mains gas only 5.2% electric only · 3.82% without a gas meter 1.4 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Bolton 81.0% mains gas only 6.8% electric only · 6.03% without a gas meter 1.5 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Bury 83.1% mains gas only 6.1% electric only · 4.86% without a gas meter 1.9 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Rochdale 81.5% mains gas only 5.6% electric only · 4.70% without a gas meter 1.6 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Oldham 80.7% mains gas only 5.2% electric only · 4.52% without a gas meter 1.3 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- Tameside 82.0% mains gas only 5.7% electric only · 4.65% without a gas meter 1.2 grant-funded heat pumps per 1,000 households
- All ten, side by side Census 2021 heating; DESNZ off-gas estimates (2024) and Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics (to September 2026).
Flat or house checker
Flat or house checker
What does Class G allow for your home?
Answer six questions to see whether an air source heat pump at your home looks like permitted development, what limits apply, and who delivers the Warm Homes: Local Grant in your borough.
Looks like permitted development under Class G
- One outdoor unit is allowed on a semi-detached house, no larger than 1.5 cubic metres.
- The installation must pass the MCS 020 a) sound calculation at the nearest neighbouring window.
- Place it to limit its effect on the look of the building and on neighbours, and remove it when no longer needed.
Warm Homes: Local Grant: For Manchester, the combined authority's page lists the delivery partner as "to be appointed". The scheme is area-based: residents of selected areas are contacted by officers.
Boiler Upgrade Scheme: £7,500 towards an air or ground source heat pump for an owner, through an MCS certified installer.
Rules: Part 14 Class G of the General Permitted Development Order as amended in 2025; delivery split from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's Warm Homes page. Read 3 November 2026. A guide to the rules, not a planning decision.
The city region
Two Greater Manchesters
The census splits the city region in two. In Manchester and Salford, only 67.0% and 69.4% of households used mains gas alone in 2021, below the England and Wales figure of 73.8%, and nearly one in five relied on electric heating alone. The government's 2024 estimates put 25.27% of Salford's properties and 25.01% of Manchester's without a gas meter. These are the boroughs with the most flats and the most renting.
In the other eight boroughs the picture is the familiar one: between 80.7% and 83.9% of households heated by gas alone, mostly in semis and terraces, with few properties off the gas network. Wigan has the lowest off-gas share of the ten, 3.82%.
The two halves need different answers. In the core, the question is usually how a flat, often electrically heated, can take a heat pump at all. In the suburbs and the mill towns, it is how a gas-heated semi or terrace compares on running costs, and where the unit goes.
- Wigan 83.9%
- Bury 83.1%
- Stockport 82.1%
- Tameside 82.0%
- Trafford 81.9%
- Rochdale 81.5%
- Bolton 81.0%
- Oldham 80.7%
- Salford 69.4%
- Manchester 67.0%
England and Wales: 73.8%
ONS Census 2021, TS046.
Flats
A heat pump for a flat
19.3% of Greater Manchester's households lived in a flat in 2021: 191,443 in purpose-built blocks and the rest in converted houses, converted buildings such as mills and warehouses, or above shops. In Manchester the share was 34.6%, and in Salford 30.4%.
England's permitted development rules treat a building made up of flats as one: Class G allows a single air source unit on a block of flats, no larger than 0.6 cubic metres, against 1.5 on a house. That suits one shared system for the building better than one unit per flat. The freeholder or management company controls the outside walls and roof, so its agreement comes first. Some blocks already have communal heating or a heat network. Where a single flat has no practical spot for an outdoor unit, an air-to-air system may be considered, though it is outside the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. The flats page covers the options.
Terraces
Terraced streets in the mill towns
The terraced house is the other typical Greater Manchester home. Oldham (38.5%), Rochdale (34.4%), Tameside (34.1%), Bolton (33.2%) had the highest terraced shares in 2021, all well above the England and Wales figure of 23.2%. A terrace can have one unit under Class G, almost always in the back yard or on the rear wall, because a road-facing wall above the ground floor is excluded and most fronts open onto the pavement. The MCS 020 a) sound calculation to the neighbour's nearest window decides the exact spot. The terraced houses page goes through it.
Warm Homes: Local Grant
An area-based scheme
Greater Manchester runs its Warm Homes: Local Grant differently from most of England. It is area-based: the combined authority's page says it targets selected areas in income deciles 1 or 2 of the 2025 Index of Multiple Deprivation, and residents there are contacted by officers rather than applying. For owner-occupiers and for a landlord's first property, it can pay up to £30,000, the full cost; for a landlord's further properties it pays half, up to half that limit. Owner-occupied homes rated EPC D to G qualify, and privately rented homes rated D or E, or F or G with a registered exemption, where the landlord supports the Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter. Air source and ground source heat pumps are on its list of measures; boilers burning gas or oil are not.
Delivery is split three ways. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority delivers the scheme in Bolton, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Trafford and Wigan. Bury, Rochdale and Tameside councils run their own. For Manchester, the delivery partner was listed as to be appointed when we checked. The Warm Homes page has the detail.
For owners outside the selected areas, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the route: £7,500 off an air or ground source heat pump through an MCS certified installer, open now in every borough.
Grants paid
Grants paid, borough by borough
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme paid for 1,993 heat pumps across the ten boroughs from May 2022 to September 2026, about 1.7 per 1,000 households. That is well under half the England and Wales rate of about 3.9. Trafford and Stockport, the boroughs with the most owner-occupiers, lead; Tameside and Oldham have the lowest rates.
Manchester has had the most in number, 357, but relative to its households it is fourth of the ten, behind Trafford, Stockport and Bury, in a borough where most homes are rented. The grants page has the full table.
- 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, May 2022 to September 2026; ONS Census 2021 households.
Tenure
A renting city region
Only 37.2% of Manchester households owned their home in 2021; 32.3% rented privately and 29.5% socially. In Salford, 47.0% owned and 26.8% rented privately. In Stockport and Trafford, by contrast, about seven households in ten were owner-occupiers. Renting matters because the Boiler Upgrade Scheme needs the owner, and social housing is outside it. Private landlords can use it, and Greater Manchester's Warm Homes: Local Grant covers privately rented homes whose landlords support the Good Landlord Charter. See renting.
Guides
Every page in the guide
- Flat or house checkerWhat Class G allows
- Heat pumps for flatsBlocks and freeholders
- Terraced housesBack yards and neighbours
- Mill and warehouse conversionsFlats in old buildings
- Warm Homes in Greater ManchesterThe area scheme
- All ten boroughsEvery figure
- Grants paidPer 1,000 households
- Off the gas gridElectric-heated flats
- How homes are heatedCensus 2021
- RentingLandlords and tenants
- Planning rulesClass G in full
- Listed buildingsRecords by borough
Also in the guide: the glossary, common questions, our sources, who we are, the full guide list and site map, plus accessibility, privacy and terms. To ask something, use the contact page.
What Greater Manchester households ask
Do you install heat pumps?
No. This is an independent guide by SEO-DONS LTD. We do not survey, quote or fit, list no firms and pass no details on. MCS keeps the official register of certified installers.
Can a flat have a heat pump without planning permission?
Often, yes. Class G allows one air source unit on a block of flats, no larger than 0.6 cubic metres, if it passes the MCS 020 a) sound calculation and meets the position rules. The building owner has to agree.
Can I apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant in Greater Manchester?
It is area-based. Residents in selected areas are contacted by officers, rather than applying. Who delivers it depends on the borough.
Which borough has had the most heat pump grants?
Manchester in number (357); Trafford relative to households, with about 2.8 per 1,000.
Who publishes this
Written by a publisher, not a fitter
Published by SEO-DONS LTD (company no. 16766013), 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. You can look the company up on Companies House. We do not survey homes, price or install heat pumps, or recommend firms, and your details are not passed to any installer.
Questions sent through the form at the foot of the page come to the publisher and are answered by email with the rule or figure that applies. Figures checked on 3 November 2026 against the Boiler Upgrade Scheme statistics, the off-gas estimates, the 2021 census and the combined authority's Warm Homes page.
A question about a heat pump for a Greater Manchester home?
Tell us which borough the home is in, whether it is a flat or a house, and what heats it now. SEO-DONS LTD, the publisher of this guide, replies by email. We are not installers and we do not pass your details to any firm.
What happens next
- Your message reaches SEO-DONS LTD, which publishes this guide to Greater Manchester homes.
- The reply comes by email, with the rule, figure or scheme page that answers it.
- Nothing is passed to installers, and asking commits you to nothing.