I am consistently told by aircon folks (ie air/air) that the MCS requirements are such that they'd be better off not bothering because they'd have to charge more than £2500 more per install just to cover the MCS stuff, even before you worry about getting rid of gas and the water heating question. However it's all very new and the government announcing it didn't mean the rest of the policies and stuff were even finished.

The industry has been around for decades, it's mostly focussed on commercial work and they just don't need the MCS. Most residential installs are adding aircon to an existing property, lots of people use the gas as backup or gradually migrate.

That’s very disappointment. Like nobody bothered to even ask the most basic questions of the installers. Like would this work? Are you interested? So it’s an extra £1000 to get the grant. Amazing that somebody got paid to come up with and “implement” it. 

Perhaps MCS needs to change and support the industry?

Posted by: @adrian

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And searching the mcs database returns no installers for e11, when applying the air to air installer filter. 
Has anybody heard of an installer claiming this grant?

I understand that MCS are having to wait for another body to create some certification so that they can then accredit it. 

I agree though with other comments that MCS have a very paper focused process that looks to cover the installers more than protect the end consumer and achieve the intended benefit on a value for money basis. They also add restrictions that slow adoption (like they did defining that PV panels need to be a certain distance from the edge of the roof - probably sounded good but silly to do it irrespectively of whether the installer thinks that is required).   

I hope some way forward is found since small flats would probably be well/better served with an air to air heatpump - maybe multisplit system (and either instant water heating for hot water or a cylinder with an good overnight tariff). The alternative may be a heat network for the block of flats (essentially air to water). 

Posted by: @batpred

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I hope some way forward is found since small flats would probably be well/better served with an air to air heatpump - maybe multisplit system (and either instant water heating for hot water or a cylinder with an good overnight tariff). The alternative may be a heat network for the block of flats (essentially air to water). 

Given we have a long established perfectly functional and competitive air/air heatpump install market maybe we should just leave it alone. Maybe we should ask hard questions about why mostly well off people are getting 7500 quid to give to their installer to give most of it to a manufacturer to pocket whilst driving up sticker prices for air/water equipment ?

Why exactly is the state bankrolling A2W and skewing the market badly whilst making people unhappy and slowing adoption due to prices and awful installs of overcomplicated equipment ?

There are lots of questions that need asking about the whole sorry mess, just like the way chunks of standing charges (proportionally more of the bill of a poor person than rich) are going from poor people to folks with solar arrays, who aren't generally needy. The whole model is broken - taxing the poor to pay the rich or to pay grants to wreck their houses with EWI, adding huge overhead to installs to fund a bunch of suits and rent seekers we don't need, and blowing government money on free money to equipment manufacturers ?