The Home Upgrade Grant: The Closed Scheme for Off-Gas Homes

The Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) is closed. It ended in March 2025 and no household can apply for it¹. It was an England-only scheme that paid for energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating in the worst performing homes off the gas grid, occupied by low income households, and it was delivered not by a national body but by individual local authorities that bid for funding². The final phase, HUG 2, officially closed in March 2025, with some grant recipients given delivery extensions to complete work already committed³.

Two phases ran. Phase 1 covered 2022 to 2023 and upgraded 4,000 homes; Phase 2 covered 2023 to 2025 and upgraded 11,900 homes. Both are recorded as closed in the official statistics published in November 2025². Government allocated a total of £1.1 billion to the Home Upgrade Grant across the programme, with delivery beginning in early 2022⁴. Different government documents give the programme's budget as £1.1 billion and as £950 million, and that disagreement has not been resolved.

What replaced it in England is the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which started in 2025, was allocated £500 million over three years in the Autumn Budget 2024 settlement, and runs from April 2025 to March 2028⁵. It provides energy performance upgrades and low carbon heating through local authorities, including for off-grid homes previously supported by the Home Upgrade Grant¹. Unlike HUG, it is open to all fuel types, including homes heated by mains gas as well as those heated by electricity, oil, coal or liquid petroleum gas⁶.

What the Home Upgrade Grant funded and who it was for

HUG existed to reach a group that supplier-funded obligations and boiler grants tended to miss: households in England living off the gas grid, in homes with poor energy performance, on low incomes. The scheme aimed at supporting low income households through upgrading the worst performing off-gas-grid homes in England⁹, and government described the focus as the worst-quality off-gas grid homes with low income households in England¹⁰.

Off-gas-grid homes are disproportionately heated by oil, liquid petroleum gas, coal or direct electric heating, which are generally more expensive per unit of useful heat than mains gas and leave the household exposed to delivered-fuel prices and tanker schedules. HUG funded fabric measures such as insulation and low carbon heating, with the intention of taking homes out of the worst EPC bands and cutting running costs rather than subsidising the fuel itself.

Phase 1 was funded at £152 million to support low-income households off the gas grid, delivered as part of the Sustainable Warmth competition¹¹. Under that competition, low-income households who owned their home could get upgrades fully funded within the relevant cost caps and did not have to contribute¹¹. Cost caps were central to the design in both phases: all upgrades had to be within the relevant cost caps to be eligible¹².

In practice, what a household received depended on the property and on the local authority's delivery model. In some areas, qualifying homeowners were able to get upgrades fitted completely free of charge¹³, and in others the first step was a free technical survey to establish which improvements would be most suitable for the home¹⁴. That survey-first approach is now standard in the successor scheme, where improvements are offered in the order recommended by the Retrofit Assessment¹⁵.

For the household's energy independence, HUG mattered because it addressed the building first. Insulation reduces the amount of purchased energy a home needs regardless of who supplies it. Low carbon heating shifts the home off a delivered fuel, but onto the electricity grid and a supplier tariff: the dependence changes shape rather than disappearing.

Eligibility: EPC band, income and the off-gas-grid test

Three tests defined HUG eligibility: tenure and location in England, the property's energy performance, and household income. The scheme provided energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating to low income households in properties which are off the gas grid and in energy efficiency bands D to G⁵.

For Phase 2, households in England had to be low income, off the gas grid, and have an EPC between D and G¹². The income figure used in official statistical summaries was a household income below £30,000, alongside an EPC of D or lower¹⁶. Local authorities operated flexible eligibility routes in some areas, which is why published household criteria varied between councils while the core national tests did not.

The off-gas-grid requirement is the single biggest difference between the old scheme and the new one, and the reason many rural households searching for HUG find that the successor has widened rather than narrowed the door. At the time HUG was announced, government estimated around 100,000 homes might benefit from the scheme¹⁰. The delivered totals, 4,000 homes in Phase 1 and 11,900 in Phase 2, were substantially below that early estimate².

How local authorities delivered the scheme

HUG was a devolved-delivery programme within England. Phase 1 was delivered by local authorities, which bid into a competition for grant funding¹⁷. £150 million had already been committed to the Home Upgrade Grant to commence delivery in early 2022, and the scheme succeeded Phase 2 of the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme, which concluded in December 2021¹⁷. That predecessor had aimed at upgrading 50,000 homes of low-income households⁵.

Phase 2 ran a three stage application process for councils: an outline application stage, a delivery assurance check, and a batch application stage. Local authorities had to apply for the funding by 27 January 2023¹². Householders could not apply centrally: eligible homeowners, tenants and private landlords were able to check whether their local authority had funding and contact them for next steps¹².

The department commissioned Verian to evaluate Phase 1, drawing on findings from 10 case studies of local authority led projects, and found the scheme was delivered by local authorities through different types of delivery models¹⁸. That variation, some councils running consortia, some contracting a managing agent, some delivering in house, is the practical reason experience of HUG differed sharply from one area to another.

Competitive, time-limited local authority delivery carries an administrative cost. The National Audit Office found that programme management and administrative expenses for the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme amounted to more than £1,000 per home upgraded¹⁹, a benchmark that informs scrutiny of any scheme routed through short funding windows.

Warm Homes: Local Grant: the successor scheme

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is a government grant scheme to provide energy performance upgrades and low carbon heating via local authorities, including off-grid homes previously supported by the Home Upgrade Grant¹. It started in 2025 and has been allocated £500 million over three years as part of the Autumn Budget 2024 settlement⁵. Funding became available on 1 April 2025 and runs until 31 March 2028²⁰.

The scheme targets low-income households living in the worst quality, privately owned homes in England. The core household tests are that the home is in England, is privately owned by the occupier or their landlord, has an EPC of D to G or the park home equivalent, that household savings are less than £25,000, and that household income is usually £36,000 a year or less. Households earning more may still be eligible if they live in a certain postcode area, or if someone in the household is getting certain benefits⁷. Supported home types include houses, flats, park homes and houses in multiple occupation with separate kitchens, and some other property types may also apply⁷.

Councils apply the rules through defined pathways. Some use a gross income test of £36,000 or an after housing costs threshold adjusted for household size²¹. Published after housing costs thresholds start at £20,000 for a single adult²² and rise with household composition, for example £23,600 for one adult with two or three dependants, £24,000 for two adults with one dependant, and £40,000 for two adults with five dependants²³. Another common route selects whole areas: in Greater Manchester, households qualify where they live in selected areas chosen for their inclusion in Income Deciles 1 or 2 of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2025 and high numbers of privately owned homes in EPC bands D to G¹⁵.

Scheme guidance was updated on 2 July 2026 to reflect the publication of the Warm Homes Plan, increasing the scheme cost caps and providing new and revised guidance on household and measure eligibility, with clarifications on Trustmark and MCS requirements²⁴. The list of successful local authorities was also updated to reflect additional funding given to some authorities in the first year of delivery²⁵. Statistics on measures installed and homes upgraded are published monthly, are one month in arrears, and are provisional and subject to future revisions²⁶.

Further detail on the household tests is set out on the page covering Warm Homes: Local Grant eligibility and income limits.

Measures and cost caps: what the successor pays for

The successor scheme funds fabric and low carbon heating, not fossil fuel replacements.

Eligible energy performance improvements include cavity wall insulation, external wall insulation, internal wall insulation, loft insulation, room in roof insulation, flat roof insulation, under floor insulation, park home insulation, draughtproofing, hot water cylinder insulation, low energy lighting, heating controls, solar PV and battery storage. Double or triple glazing and energy efficient doors are listed but recommended only in rare cases¹⁵. Delivery in other areas has been described in similar terms, covering solar panel installation, home insulation and heating system upgrades²⁷. Improvements are offered in the order recommended by the Retrofit Assessment, and the target is to raise the property towards EPC Band C¹⁵.

Cost caps set the ceiling on what any one property can draw:

Published figures for what a household receives are not all consistent: one guidance source gives up to £30,000 of measures per property⁸ while another cites an estimated whole-project average of up to £12,400 per household, and that difference has not been resolved. The cap is a maximum, not an entitlement.

Installers must be Trustmark registered and certified under the latest version of PAS 2030, or by MCS, to install the relevant measures²². The scheme also sits inside the reformed consumer protection system being consulted on, under which compliance is mandatory for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, additional funding for low-income households, the Warm Homes Loan Scheme and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, along with retrofit projects funded through integrated settlements to Mayoral Combined Authorities²⁸.

Where heating is concerned, households not eligible for a council scheme may look instead at the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. From 21 July 2026 that grant increased by 20%, from £7,500 to £9,000, for owners with properties heated by oil and liquid petroleum gas²⁹. Approved grant categories include a biomass boiler in an off-gas grid property replacing an oil heating system. Funding also cannot be blended within an ECO4 package of measures³⁰.

Owner occupiers, tenants and landlords: who pays what

For owner occupied homes the rule is unambiguous: the upgrade should be fully funded and the household must not be required to contribute to the costs of upgrades²². Councils describe this plainly, stating that upgrades are free for eligible residents while landlords must contribute towards costs³¹. There is no match funding required for owner-occupied homes³².

For private rented homes the scheme fully funds upgrades for one property per landlord²². Landlords can apply for multiple eligible homes but receive full funding for only one, and must pay half of the upgrade costs for any eligible homes upgraded after the first⁷. There is no eligibility restriction against landlords based on the number of properties that they own²². Social housing landlords must contribute at least 50% of the total cost of upgrades²².

Tenants should not pay for upgrade costs⁷. Two further conditions protect them. Rent should not be increased as a result of upgrades funded by government through the scheme, and participating landlords must confirm they understand that²². Separately, under the domestic private rented property minimum standard, landlords must not unreasonably refuse tenant requests for energy efficiency improvements where those improvements can be funded at no cost to the landlord, for example through grants or third-party funding³³. In some areas landlord participation is also tied to local standards, such as being a supporter of the Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter¹⁵.

How to apply and what happens next

Applications go to the local authority or its delivery partner, not to a central government office. The usual route is an online form used to check eligibility, which may ask about benefits received, household income in one year, tax and deduction costs, council tax costs and mortgage or rent costs over the same year⁷.

A typical council process runs in four steps³⁴:

1. Apply, using the online eligibility form.
2. Upload supporting documents, such as evidence of income or benefits.
3. Have the home assessed, so measures can be recommended and ordered.
4. Approve the work before installation begins.

Queue management matters more than most applicants expect. In London the scheme is delivered on behalf of 31 local authorities working together as a consortium, with total funding shared between authorities based on the number of homes in fuel poverty in each area⁷. In Years Two and Three applications are managed first come, first served within each local authority rather than across London as a whole, and each authority's queue is capped at up to 250% of its allocation to allow for applications that do not go ahead or are found ineligible. Once a queue is full, further applications from that area are placed on a waiting list, and if space becomes available applications are invited from the waiting list in the order they were received. Being in the queue does not guarantee funding: applications must meet the scheme eligibility⁷.

Contact points are local. In Greater Manchester, for example, enquiries for Bolton, Oldham, Salford, Stockport, Trafford and Wigan go to the combined authority, Bury and Rochdale have their own council contacts, and arrangements for Manchester and Tameside have been listed as to be confirmed¹⁵. Where a current EPC is missing, some partners offer limited funding towards the cost of getting a new home energy certificate⁷.

Scam approaches and checking that an officer is genuine

Area-based schemes involve doorstep contact: residents of homes within selected areas are contacted by officers working for the named delivery organisations¹⁵. That creates an opening for impostors, and one has already been documented.

Two checks follow from the published rules. First, money: no fee is payable at any stage, so any request for payment to secure a grant is inconsistent with the scheme⁷. Second, identity: all officers carry official photo identification, and the guidance asks residents to see it before letting anyone into the home¹⁵.

Behind the scenes there is verification too. Landlord information submitted to the department by participating local authorities through the online form is checked weekly by the department or its delivery partner²². Similar counter-fraud discipline applies to the linked heating grant: under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, where government believes installers and property owners have colluded in fraudulent activity, cases will always be referred to the police, and grants already paid to an installer can be required to be repaid.

Householders who are approached unexpectedly, or who are unsure whether a caller is connected to their council's scheme, can compare what they are told against the council's own published contact details, and can read more about the wider pattern of energy grant scams and fake government schemes.

What the closure means for off-grid households

HUG's ending removed a dedicated off-gas-grid route. The successor is broader in fuel terms and narrower in nothing except that it, too, is finite: £500 million, an indicative national pot, running to 31 March 2028³². Funding is allocated to particular authorities, queues are capped, and being in a queue does not guarantee an offer⁷.

For a household weighing independence, the honest position is this. Fabric measures funded under these schemes permanently reduce the energy a home needs, and that gain does not depend on any scheme continuing. Low carbon heating removes a delivered fuel and a tank, but substitutes reliance on the electricity grid, a supplier and a tariff, and on a manufacturer and installer for warranty and service. Solar PV and battery storage, both eligible measures in the successor scheme¹⁵, shift a share of consumption on site without severing the connection. And the grant route itself is a dependence: it relies on a council holding funding, a delivery partner being appointed, and a scheme window staying open. A wider view of the options is set out in the guide to home energy grants and schemes, and the comparison between the old off-grid scheme and supplier-funded help is covered in ECO4 vs the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG2).