Commercial heat pump grants in Liverpool: funding routes and local context

Serving Liverpool and the wider Merseyside area, including Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey.

Why commercial heat pumps make sense for Liverpool businesses

Liverpool’s commercial estate spans the waterfront offices and hospitality of the city centre, the manufacturing and logistics of Speke and Knowsley, and the dock and port operations along the Mersey. Almost all of it relies on gas for heat, and with Liverpool City Council committed to a 2030 net zero target and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority running a Net Zero Innovation Fund, the appetite for commercial heat decarbonisation across Merseyside is real and growing.

A commercial heat pump delivers three to four units of heat for every unit of electricity, removing on-site combustion and giving a Liverpool business lower-carbon heat and stable running costs. The strongest cases sit where a gas boiler is near end of life and the building runs year-round, which covers much of the city’s office, hospitality, healthcare, and industrial stock. Buildings inside the Liverpool Freeport zone may have different tax treatment, which is worth checking with an accountant for any project there.

Liverpool’s commercial geography and where heat pumps fit

Speke, in the south of the city near Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is one of Merseyside’s most significant manufacturing and logistics clusters, home to pharmaceutical, automotive, and food production tenants with serious year-round heat and process demand. Some Speke buildings sit within the Liverpool Freeport; ask an accountant whether any special-zone tax treatment applies to a project there, separately from the capital allowances available on plant.

Knowsley Industrial Park, just outside the city to the east, is one of the largest industrial estates in the North West and carries a heavy concentration of manufacturing and distribution. Aintree and Estuary Commerce Park add further depth, and the dock estate along the Mersey at Bootle carries port and logistics operations with their own heat demand. The newer, better-insulated units across these estates tend to suit standard air-source systems at low flow temperatures, while the older stock more often calls for hybrid or high-temperature designs.

The city-centre core, the waterfront offices around the Royal Liver Building and the commercial district, the hospitality around the Albert Dock, and the institutional buildings of the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Cathedral, is retrofit territory. The World Heritage waterfront context and the extensive conservation areas mean external-plant siting and acoustic design need real care on city-centre buildings.

Liverpool City Council’s climate plan and what it means for your project

Liverpool City Council’s 2030 net zero target sits within the Liverpool City Region Climate Action Plan, and the Combined Authority’s Net Zero Innovation Fund provides support for low-carbon measures across the region. The council’s planning service is supportive of heat decarbonisation, and buildings inside the Freeport zone may have different tax treatment worth checking.

The public-sector route has been significant: Liverpool’s schools, hospitals, and council buildings have used the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme for the additional cost of low-carbon heat, but it is closed to new bids with no confirmed successor, so check gov.uk. For Speke and other Freeport-zone businesses, ask an accountant whether Freeport enhanced capital allowances apply; otherwise heat pumps for space and water heating are special-rate integral features, so the routes are the Annual Investment Allowance (100% up to £1m) and, for companies, the 50% special-rate first-year allowance, not full expensing. The conservation-area and World Heritage coverage along the waterfront means heritage-sensitive external-plant design is part of the picture for city-centre projects.

Local cost and grid context: what Liverpool businesses face

An indicative figure for a Liverpool SME with 50 to 250 staff is around £40,000 a year on energy, with the large manufacturing and logistics operators at Speke and Knowsley spending considerably more. Those higher-baseline industrial sites are often where a well-designed heat pump, or a hybrid covering the bulk of the load efficiently, delivers the clearest savings.

The electrical supply is the constraint to plan around. A large heat pump adds meaningful load, and a DNO supply upgrade through SP Energy Networks can be the longest-lead item in the project, so ask the installer to confirm capacity at feasibility. Liverpool’s older industrial and converted buildings frequently run high-temperature emitter systems, so the emitter survey is central to every design, it determines whether a building suits a standard air-source unit at low flow temperature or whether a hybrid or high-temperature approach is the right route.

An illustrative Liverpool scenario: Speke manufacturing unit

Take a manufacturing unit at Speke, inside the Liverpool Freeport zone, running an end-of-life gas boiler for space heating and process hot water. The operator wants to cut carbon for a customer’s supply-chain requirements and is renewing part of the building anyway. A 250 kW air-source heat pump replaces the gas plant, designed to keep flow temperatures low where the emitters allow, with any necessary emitter upgrades carried out alongside the building works.

The expected outcome is on-site combustion removed and heat carbon cut sharply. Capital allowances are a tax relief on qualifying plant; it applies to the cost the business itself funds, so confirm treatment with an accountant. Buildings inside the Freeport zone should ask an accountant whether any extra treatment applies to qualifying building works. The old boiler would be kept live through commissioning, and the changeover planned outside the peak winter weeks. Every figure in an installer’s proposal should come from the building’s twelve-month consumption data and a heat-loss survey.

Location guides across Liverpool and the wider region

This guide covers commercial heat pump considerations across all of Liverpool’s L postcode districts, from the central L1 to L3 core out to the L24 and L25 industrial and suburban fringes. Many Liverpool businesses run sites across Merseyside and beyond, so the same points apply in Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey, St Helens, and Crosby, and out towards Warrington. Each authority has its own climate strategy and net zero target, which is worth checking for any multi-site portfolio.

If you manage several Merseyside sites, ask an installer to treat the portfolio as a programme, prioritising the buildings where the boiler is closest to failure and the funding fit is strongest.

Funding and next steps for Liverpool heat pump projects

The route that fits depends on what you are. Liverpool’s public bodies, schools, the council estate, NHS trusts, and the universities should note that the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is for public bodies, but Phase 4 closed to new applications in November 2024 with no open window or confirmed successor, so check gov.uk. The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund is closed, with no successor planned, so industrial sites at Speke or Knowsley should not plan around it. Large multi-building schemes may be candidates for the Green Heat Network Fund (England and Wales; Round 12 closed on 25 September 2026, so check gov.uk for the next round). Smaller systems up to 45 kWth may qualify for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales, which is not limited to homes; confirm eligibility with the installer or Ofgem. Every business paying UK tax can look at capital allowances such as the Annual Investment Allowance (£1m a year), which are tax reliefs on qualifying plant and machinery; they apply to the cost the business itself funds, so confirm treatment with an accountant. Our grants and funding guide covers each route, and our cost page explains what drives the figures.

A good installer will start from your twelve months of consumption data, model running cost and carbon, flag any supply constraint early, and tell you whether a heat pump suits your building. This guide sets out what to ask. Send an enquiry and we reply by email. This site is not an installer and gives no price.