Insulation and Glazing Grants in England

Insulation grants in England now run through two main routes: the Warm Homes: Local Grant, delivered by councils, and the remaining supplier obligation work under ECO4. The Warm Homes: Local Grant funds 100 per cent of the cost up to £15,000 for an owner occupier or a private landlord's first property, and 50 per cent of the cost up to £7,500 for a landlord's second and subsequent properties¹. It runs from April 2025 to March 2028 and has been allocated £500 million over three years².

The Great British Insulation Scheme, formerly known as ECO+, has closed. Its application service shut, installations had to be complete by 31 March 2026, and the government confirmed there would be no extension, no increase in targets and no carry-over arrangements⁴. It installed 126,000 measures up to the end of December 2025 against an aim of helping around 300,000 households⁷.

What remains for a household in England is a patchwork: a council-run grant with a queue in each area, ECO4 Flexible Eligibility for those who do not receive a means-tested benefit, and a small number of local top-ups. The sections below set out who qualifies, what is funded, what it costs the household, and how to check that an approach is genuine.

The grant landscape in England: which schemes exist and who runs them

Three funding streams matter for fabric measures in England, and they are run by different bodies with different rules.

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is administered by local authorities and provides grants to low-income households living in privately owned properties¹. It is the successor to the local authority delivery model, and 74 projects involving 271 local authorities, over 97 per cent of eligible councils in England, have been allocated funding². Its companion, the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, provides funding to local authorities, combined authorities, registered providers of social housing, and registered charities that own social housing in England⁹.

The supplier obligation schemes sit alongside. ECO4 is funded by energy suppliers and delivered through a set of eligibility routes: the Help to Heat Group, Social Housing, LA Flex, In-Fill and Supplier Flex¹¹. The Great British Insulation Scheme was the smaller sibling, a government energy-efficiency scheme administered by Ofgem, designed to deliver improvements to the least energy-efficient homes in Great Britain to help tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions¹². It applied to England, Scotland and Wales, and its funding was determined by the energy companies themselves, depending on the measure type and other factors¹³.

The distinction matters for a household. Council-run funding is allocated by area and queued; supplier obligation funding is delivered by obligated suppliers and their installers, with eligibility set nationally and widened locally through flex routes. A household in England may be eligible under more than one, but only one route will fund a given measure.

Warm Homes: Local Grant: what it funds and how much

The headline figures are set by tenure. An owner occupier or a private landlord's first property in England receives 100 per cent of the cost up to £15,000 of energy performance improvements. A private landlord's second and subsequent properties receive 50 per cent of the cost up to £7,500¹. Up to £30,000 of measures is available per property under the scheme as described by participating councils³.

One set of scheme rules gives 100 per cent of the cost up to £15,000, while another gives 100 per cent of the cost up to £30,000¹. Both figures are in circulation for the same tenure, and the difference is not resolved in the published material.

Social housing landlords must contribute at least 50 per cent of the total cost of upgrades⁴. The scheme aims to bring homes treated under it to EPC EER Band C wherever possible within the cost caps⁴.

The measures funded are fabric and generation, not combustion. Eligible energy performance measures include cavity wall insulation, other insulation types, heating controls, hot water cylinder measures, low energy lighting, solar PV, solar thermal, digital and smart controls, draughtproofing, double and triple glazing, energy efficiency doors and domestic batteries⁴. Gas and oil boilers are not eligible improvements under the scheme¹.

The scheme's budget is £500 million over three years as part of the Autumn Budget 2024 settlement⁷. That figure sets the scale: it is a grant programme measured in hundreds of millions, spread across 271 councils and three years, not an entitlement open to every household that applies.

Warm Homes: Local Grant eligibility: income, EPC band and home type

Eligibility turns on three things: who lives in the home, what the property's energy rating is, and who owns it.

The income test is usually a household income of £36,000 a year or less⁴. One council describes the scheme as supporting households with a combined income of less than £36,000³. The published rules also refer to a home in England, privately owned, EPC D to G, household savings less than £25,000, and household income usually £36,000 a year or less, with postcode or benefits exceptions⁴. The two formulations of the income threshold are not reconciled in the published material.

The EPC test differs by tenure. Owner occupied properties qualify with an EPC rating of Band D, E, F or G. Privately rented properties qualify with an EPC rating of Band D or E¹. The scheme's target is to raise treated homes to Band C wherever possible within the cost caps⁴.

For landlords, the tenant or tenants must meet the household eligibility rules and provide evidence of income. Properties must be at least EPC Band E unless they are Band F or G with a registered exemption, and the landlord must not have exceeded £315,000 in minimum financial assistance under government rules⁷.

Homes qualifying under ECO4 Flex Route 2 are also eligible for the Warm Homes: Local Grant under route D⁷. That cross-reference matters: a household that has already been assessed under the supplier obligation flex route may be able to move across to the council scheme without a fresh eligibility argument.

Great British Insulation Scheme: eligibility routes and what is funded

The Great British Insulation Scheme ran from April 2023 to March 2026, when funding ended as with ECO4⁷. It delivered the rapid installation of value-for-money insulation measures and, in some cases, heating controls, and it delivered one insulation measure per home¹³.

Its eligibility routes were General Eligibility, Low-income and Social Housing, In-fill and LA Flex¹¹. The measures funded included cavity wall insulation, including party wall¹³. Certain heating controls, such as room thermostats, were allowed as a secondary measure for eligible insulation measures installed in owner-occupied premises in the low-income group¹³.

The scheme extended eligibility to households in lower council tax band properties, bands A to D in England and A to E in Scotland and Wales, so long as their energy efficiency rating was band D or lower⁷. There was no minimum requirement under the scheme for a property's Standard Assessment Procedure rating to be increased through the measure¹³.

Higher-cost measures, such as solid wall insulation, were more likely to require a contribution from the household¹³. The customer contribution was not known until after the assessment: the applicant found out after the assessment if they needed to pay anything towards the installation of the insulation¹⁵.

All measures available under the scheme had to be delivered according to PAS2030/2035 standards, and all installers had to be a TrustMark-registered business¹³. Only obligated suppliers could apply under the innovation routes, and a new or innovative product or system had to be supported through work with an obligated supplier, which liaised with Ofgem and submitted the application¹³.

The Great British Insulation Scheme has closed: what it delivered and what remains

The scheme has closed. The service to check eligibility for free or cheaper home insulation has closed, and installations had to be complete by 31 March 2026, when the scheme ended¹⁵. The government confirmed there would be no extension to the Great British Insulation Scheme, no increase in targets and no carry-over arrangements⁶. The ending of funding for the Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) Scheme and the Great British Insulation Scheme was set out in guidance for energy suppliers¹⁶.

It delivered 126,000 measures up to the end of December 2025, against an aim of helping around 300,000 households⁷. The gap between the two figures is the clearest measure of what the scheme did not achieve.

Some energy suppliers were still accepting applications after the closure, and the advice is to check with your supplier¹⁵. If you have questions about an existing application, contact the energy supplier you applied to¹⁵. Ofgem publishes contact details of obligated suppliers, and general enquiries can go to GBIS.enquiry@ofgem.gov.uk¹⁷.

Two technical points survive the closure. Measures approved under the ECO4 DLM route were not eligible for delivery under the scheme, while ECO4 approved IMs could be delivered where measure type and eligibility requirements for the Great British Insulation Scheme were met¹⁸. The 5 per cent applicant uplift did not apply, and award of the innovation uplift was capped at 10 per cent of a supplier's low-income group obligation¹⁸.

ECO4 Flexible Eligibility: the three routes for households not on benefits

ECO4 Flexible Eligibility is a household referral mechanism within the wider ECO4 Scheme for households not in receipt of a means-tested benefit¹⁹. Both the property and the household must adhere to at least one of the three available routes¹⁹.

Route 2 covers EPC bands E to G owner-occupied households and private rented sector households that meet at least two of a set of proxy criteria¹⁹. Route 3 covers EPC bands D to G owner-occupied households and E to G private rented sector households identified and referred by a GP, a Health Board or an NHS trust¹⁹.

A separate income route used by councils covers households with a gross household income of under £31,000²⁰. Essex County Council describes its vulnerable household route as being identified by the council as a vulnerable household which is not eligible under any other scheme²¹.

The measures available under ECO4 Flex include solid wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, room in roof insulation, loft insulation, flat roof insulation, electric storage heater upgrade, first time central heating to air source heat pump, boiler upgrade from oil, LPG and solid fuel to air source heat pump, and solar photovoltaic panels¹⁹.

Local authorities and devolved administrations can widen the eligibility criteria through flex routes, and councils can sign up to participate in the Great British Insulation Scheme local authority and supplier flex²². Suppliers and local authorities need to collect sufficient evidence from all local authority and Supplier Flex measures installed to ensure they meet the eligibility and compliance requirements²³.

For a household that does not meet the ECO4 and GBIS Flex criteria, a council may still have a local scheme. Essex, for example, directs those who do not meet the criteria to its own Warm Homes Essex offer²¹.

How to apply and what the process costs

For the Warm Homes: Local Grant, the route in is the online form on GOV.UK to check eligibility. The form may ask about benefits received, household income in one year, tax and deduction costs in one year, council tax costs in one year, and mortgage or rent costs in one year⁴.

Once a council's queue is full, any 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 received⁴.

The cost to the household depends on tenure and measure. Tenants should not pay for upgrade costs²⁴. For the Great British Insulation Scheme, the applicant found out after the assessment if they needed to pay anything towards the installation of the insulation¹⁵. Higher-cost measures such as solid wall insulation were more likely to require a contribution from the household¹³.

Where a grant does not cover the full cost, the household pays the difference to the installer. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which funds heating rather than fabric, illustrates how grant money is handled: the grant is not received directly by the property owner, it is paid to the installer and reflected in the quote and invoice²⁵. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £5,000 for biomass boilers in limited circumstances²⁶.

Outside England, the shape of support differs. Northern Ireland's Affordable Warmth Scheme pays grant aid up to £10,000 where a home is of solid wall construction and needs insulation, and requires the installer employed to be able to provide a minimum 25-year guarantee for cavity wall or solid wall insulation work²⁷. The Help to Insulate and Keep Warm Discount schemes in Northern Ireland offer a grant of 40 per cent towards the cost of cavity wall insulation and loft insulation, up to £650 maximum grant per insulation measure and up to £1,000 maximum grant for cavity wall insulation by extraction and refill, with a hot water tank jacket fully funded as an additional measure²⁸.

What installers, standards and guarantees apply

All installers under the Great British Insulation Scheme had to be TrustMark-accredited and will have a registration number, and all installers had to be a TrustMark-registered business¹². All measures available under the scheme had to be delivered according to PAS2030/2035¹³.

The guarantee position is split. Ofgem does not administer appropriate guarantees or financial protection for measures installed under the Great British Insulation Scheme, and the current list of appropriate guarantees can be found on the TrustMark website¹³. In Northern Ireland, the Affordable Warmth Scheme requires the installer employed to be able to provide a minimum 25-year guarantee for cavity wall or solid wall insulation work²⁷.

The Great British Insulation Scheme and ECO4 forms are used to collect and provide evidence of measure eligibility¹³. That paperwork trail is what a household should expect to see: an eligibility declaration before work, and a guarantee document after it.

Scams and how to check an approach is genuine

The strongest check is who makes contact and who arranges the survey. Under the Great British Insulation Scheme, if an applicant was eligible for support, their energy supplier arranged an assessment of the property¹⁵. A cold call offering a free survey, with no supplier behind it, does not match that process.

Suspected fraud can be reported via Ofgem's counter fraud section, which also covers Ofgem's role in preventing fraud¹⁷. Complaints about an installation are handled under the complaints process on a linked page, and to complain about insulation installed under the scheme, the Ofgem energy company obligation complaints guidance is the route¹⁷. For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, suspected fraud can be reported to Ofgem by emailing counterfraud@ofgem.gov.uk²⁵.

Checking a business is straightforward. Installers under the supplier obligation schemes must be TrustMark-registered, and the registration number can be verified. The appropriate guarantee for a measure should appear on the TrustMark website's list¹³.

What comes next under the Warm Homes Plan

The Warm Homes Plan is the framework that follows. It will invest £15 billion over this Parliament to cut energy bills²⁹. The plan is intended to upgrade up to 5 million homes, lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty and triple the number of homes with rooftop solar panels by 2030, and it sets an objective of 180,000 additional jobs in energy efficiency and clean heating by 2030³⁰.

Further Warm Homes funding has been announced for 2028 to 2030, which will allow new priority areas to be identified⁷. The Warm Homes: Local Grant delivery window is scheduled to close on 31 March 2028⁴.

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the current national programme for England, and its funding is already committed in some areas. All available funding for the scheme in Somerset has been allocated until the scheme ends in March 2028, with new applicants placed on a waiting list³¹. That pattern is likely to repeat as councils reach their queue caps.

For a household, the practical position is that fabric funding in England is now a queued, council-administered grant with a fixed delivery window, plus whatever ECO4 flex route a council operates. The dependence that remains is on the grid, on a supplier to deliver obligation-funded work, and on a council to hold a place in its queue. Insulation reduces the amount of energy a home needs, but it does not remove the connection to a supplier or the need for a heating system. Households weighing fabric work against heating replacement can read more on what insulation a heat pump needs and on planning a whole-house retrofit.