Heating by borough
Shares of households using each type of central heating and nothing else, from the census of March 2021. The renewable column also counts households with renewable heating alongside another type.
| Borough | Mains gas | Electric | LPG | Oil | Heat network | Renewable | None |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Helens | 84.9% | 3.7% | 0.38% | 0.23% | 0.42% | 0.29% | 1.2% |
| Wirral | 84.3% | 4.8% | 0.34% | 0.17% | 0.47% | 0.39% | 1.5% |
| Halton | 84.3% | 4.5% | 0.41% | 0.23% | 0.36% | 0.36% | 1.4% |
| Sefton | 83.6% | 5.4% | 0.46% | 0.24% | 0.41% | 0.31% | 1.6% |
| Knowsley | 83.4% | 4.2% | 0.86% | 0.20% | 0.32% | 0.57% | 1.5% |
| Liverpool (comparison) | 77.8% | 9.8% | 0.48% | 0.05% | 0.53% | 0.27% | 2.3% |
| England and Wales | 73.8% | 8.5% | 1.05% | 3.49% | 0.89% | 0.94% | 1.5% |
Gas, almost everywhere
All five boroughs used gas alone in more than four households in five, against about three in four nationally. The spread between them is small, under two percentage points. For a heat pump, the starting point in nearly every home is a gas boiler, usually a combi in a semi or terrace.
Electric heating
Electricity was the only heating for 21,769 households across the five, 4.6%. Sefton had the largest share (5.4%) and St Helens the smallest (3.7%); all five were below the England and Wales figure, and well below Liverpool's 9.8%. Electric-only heating usually means storage heaters or electric radiators. For those homes a heat pump usually cuts the electricity needed for heating, but may mean fitting radiators and pipes for the first time.
LPG and oil
Tank or bottled gas heated 2,156 households alone, and oil 975. Knowsley's LPG share, 0.86%, is the highest of the five; the census does not say why. These homes are the only ones in the boroughs likely to qualify for the higher £9,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme band, which runs until 31 March 2027, and only if they have no mains gas connection at all.
Heat networks
1,929 households across the five were heated by a district or communal heat network alone, from 0.32% in Knowsley to 0.47% in Wirral. They are usually in blocks of flats. A household on a heat network does not choose its own heating, and Ofgem's off-gas definition for the higher grant band excludes homes attached to one.
Renewable heating
The census gave renewable energy as a heating option, with solar thermal and heat pumps as examples. 1,758 households in the five boroughs, 0.4%, had renewable heating alone or alongside another type, with Knowsley highest at 0.57%. The census came before the Boiler Upgrade Scheme opened in May 2022, so these figures are the starting point, not today's position.
No central heating
6,916 households, 1.5%, reported no central heating at all. Such homes need pipes and radiators as well as a heat source, which makes a heat pump a bigger job. For lower-income households in that position, the Warm Homes: Local Grant is the route to look at.
What the census cannot tell you
The census records what households reported on one day in March 2021. It does not say how old the boiler was, how well the home was insulated or how much the heating cost. The government's separate off-gas estimates count properties without a gas meter, which is a different measure from households heated by something other than gas. Used together, they describe a borough; neither describes your house.
Using the table for your borough
Find your borough's row and compare it with the line for England and Wales. A gas share well above the national figure, as in all five boroughs, means a heat pump will usually be replacing a gas boiler, so ask for a running-cost comparison against your own gas bills. A higher electric share, as in Sefton, means more homes where a heat pump replaces storage heaters, and where the saving on running costs is usually clearer.