The table
| Borough | Households | Gas only | No gas meter | Semi | Terraced | Detached | Flats | Owned | Social rent | Per 1,000: grants | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wirral | 143,253 | 84.3% | 4.88% | 41.6% | 23.5% | 17.4% | 11.9% | 65.0% | 15.4% | 1.8 | 736 |
| Sefton | 123,075 | 83.6% | 5.62% | 46.1% | 18.4% | 16.2% | 13.6% | 66.6% | 14.4% | 1.5 | 568 |
| St Helens | 81,011 | 84.9% | 2.96% | 47.0% | 28.3% | 15.8% | 7.2% | 64.2% | 19.7% | 1.5 | 151 |
| Knowsley | 66,073 | 83.4% | 2.21% | 43.1% | 31.5% | 15.0% | 9.1% | 59.5% | 25.3% | 1.1 | 105 |
| Halton | 55,951 | 84.3% | 3.35% | 34.5% | 33.4% | 21.0% | 9.5% | 60.5% | 24.3% | 1.5 | 129 |
| Liverpool (ref.) | 207,491 | 77.8% | 15.65% | 30.7% | 37.9% | 8.2% | 17.2% | 46.8% | 26.4% | 0.9 | 1,569 |
| England and Wales | 24,783,199 | 73.8% | - | 31.5% | 23.2% | 23.2% | 16.7% | 61.6% | 17.1% | 3.9 | - |
Gas: the measure they share
- St Helens 84.9%
- Wirral 84.3%
- Halton 84.3%
- Sefton 83.6%
- Knowsley 83.4%
- Liverpool (comparison) 77.8%
England and Wales: 73.8%
ONS Census 2021, TS046.
The five boroughs cluster tightly, between 83.4% and 84.9%, about ten points above England and Wales. Liverpool, at 77.8%, sits between them and the national figure, because far more of its homes use electric heating. In practical terms the five boroughs are gas boroughs: the comparison a householder makes is a heat pump against a new gas boiler, and the grant is the standard £7,500 band.
Off the gas grid: small numbers, one outlier
On the government's 2024 estimates, between 2.21% (Knowsley) and 5.62% (Sefton) of domestic properties had no gas meter. Sefton's higher figure goes with its larger share of electric-only households (5.4%) and purpose-built flats (13.6%). Liverpool's 15.65% is in a different league, which is one reason the city is not grouped with the five here.
Housing: semis everywhere, then a split
Semi-detached houses are the largest group in every borough, led by St Helens (47.0%) and Sefton (46.1%). After that the boroughs divide. Halton and Knowsley have the most terraces (33.4% and 31.5%); Halton also has the most detached houses (21.0%); Sefton and Wirral have the most purpose-built flats. Each type changes where an outdoor unit can go and how many Class G allows: one on a semi or terrace, up to two on a detached house, and a smaller size limit on a block of flats.
Tenure: who can decide
Owner-occupation runs from 59.5% in Knowsley to 66.6% in Sefton, and social renting from 14.4% in Sefton to 25.3% in Knowsley. Tenure matters because the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is for owners and private landlords, not social housing. A borough with a quarter of its homes socially rented has a quarter of its homes where only the landlord's own programme can change the heating.
Grants: low across the board
Wirral leads on grants paid per 1,000 households at about 1.8; Knowsley is lowest at about 1.1. All five are well under the England and Wales figure of about 3.9. The order roughly follows owner-occupation: the boroughs with more owners have had more heat pumps paid for, though the statistics themselves give no reasons.
Listed buildings
Wirral (736) and Sefton (568) hold most of the five boroughs' listed-building records; St Helens, Halton and Knowsley have between 105 and 151 each. Class G does not apply to a listed building, so a heat pump there always needs planning permission.
Reading the comparison
A borough figure describes thousands of homes at once. Two streets in the same borough can differ more than two boroughs do, so use the comparison to understand the setting and the selector or your borough's page for the detail. For your own home, what decides the work is its heat loss, its space outside and who owns it.