The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme

The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme offers homeowners in Scotland a grant, an interest-free loan, or a combination of both, to install clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures¹. For clean heating systems such as heat pumps, grant funding of up to £7,500 is available; for energy efficiency measures such as insulation, grant funding covers up to 75% of the combined cost of the measures, up to the same £7,500 maximum¹. An optional interest-free loan of £7,500 sits alongside the grant for both routes¹. Homes in remote rural and island areas qualify for an uplift of £1,500 on both the energy efficiency and clean heating grants, taking the grant ceiling to £9,000¹.

The scheme is open to all domestic owner-occupiers in Scotland, with no benefits or income test⁴. It is delivered by Home Energy Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government, and administered by the Energy Saving Trust⁵. Applications are made in two stages: a funding application before any work takes place, then a claim once the work is completed⁵. The scheme's terms and conditions are set by the Scottish Government rather than by legislation, so the detail of the rules can change without a change in the law⁶.

For a household working towards energy independence, this is one of the most generous open-access packages in the UK: it is the only national scheme that combines a substantial grant with an interest-free loan for both fabric measures and clean heating, without means-testing. What it does not do is fund the full cost of a retrofit, and it does not fund replacement heat pumps at all⁷.

Funding options: grant, loan or a combination

The scheme's core design is flexibility: a homeowner can take a grant alone, a loan alone, or a grant topped up with a loan². The grant element does not have to be repaid. The loan element is interest-free, meaning the amount borrowed is the amount repaid, apart from a one-off administration fee⁷.

The structure matters because the two halves of the scheme serve different purposes. The grant is the public subsidy: it reduces the net cost of insulation or a clean heating system, and for energy efficiency measures it is capped at 75% of the combined cost of the measures, so the householder always contributes something¹. The loan is the affordability bridge: it lets a household spread its contribution over years at 0% interest rather than paying it upfront¹.

This is a deliberate shift from the scheme's predecessor. The Home Energy Scotland Loan and Cashback Scheme operated on a cashback model, and the current Grant and Loan Scheme replaced it with the grant-first structure. Official statistics note that published data may include applications made under the previous scheme that were not approved or completed before the launch of the current one, so figures spanning the transition should be read with that in mind¹⁰. Under the old scheme, applicants had 6 months to draw down funding, compared with the current 9-month window to complete work and submit a claim¹¹.

For clean heating, the Scottish Government describes the offer as a £7,500 grant for homeowners installing clean heating systems, with an optional £7,500 interest-free loan in addition³. The same optional loan is available for energy efficiency work¹. A household can therefore combine the two: insulate with grant support, then install a heat pump with grant plus loan.

Eligibility: homeowners in existing properties in Scotland

The eligibility rule is broad and worth stating precisely. The scheme is open to all domestic owner-occupiers in Scotland⁴. The scheme's own terms add the detail, and the conditions can be listed plainly:

• The applicant must own or jointly own the property as a "natural person", not a business⁷.
• The property must be the applicant's only or principal private residence⁷.
• Funding applies to existing Scottish homes only⁷.
• There is no income test and no requirement to be receiving benefits⁴.

This is the sharpest distinction from Warmer Homes Scotland, the Scottish Government's other main owner-occupier programme, which is available to households living in or at risk of fuel poverty and which applies its own qualifying criteria¹. Households that do not meet a fuel poverty test are not shut out of support: the Grant and Loan Scheme is the open route, and its grants do not need to be repaid.

Private landlords are not part of this scheme's owner-occupier route, though the wider landscape is more complicated. Official records describe the Grant and Loan Scheme and the Private Rented Sector Landlord Loan Scheme together as providing grant and loan funding directly to owner-occupiers, as well as to private registered landlords for their rented properties¹³. Earlier guidance on Home Energy Scotland loans allowed private landlords to borrow to fund measures in a maximum of 3 properties¹⁴. A landlord's route is the landlord scheme, not the owner-occupier grant.

Tenants of social landlords are outside the scheme altogether; social housing is governed by the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing instead. For owner-occupiers, the practical effect of the open eligibility is that the scheme rewards initiative: the household that finds the scheme, checks its EPC and applies gets the support, regardless of income.

What the money covers: heating upgrades and insulation

The scheme funds two categories of work: clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures¹. Official publications describe the purpose as supporting the installation of clean heating systems and energy efficiency measures¹, and the scheme's statistics record the types of energy efficiency measures and clean heating systems installed by financial year¹⁵.

On the clean heating side, the scheme offers grants to homeowners to install heat pumps¹⁶. Heat network connections were added as a funded category: applications for heat network connection grant support opened in December 2025¹². On the energy efficiency side, the eligible measures are those listed in the "recommended measures" section of the property's Energy Performance Certificate; only those improvements are eligible for funding, and alternative measures or measures absent from the certificate cannot be funded⁷.

Battery storage sits in a specific position. The scheme can provide interest-free loan funding for energy efficiency measures or to install renewable measures such as heat pumps or battery storage, with grant funding also potentially available¹⁷. For a household thinking about solar panels and batteries, the loan is the relevant instrument, and the grant position depends on the measure and the EPC.

Two exclusions matter as much as the inclusions:

• No grant for replacement heat pumps. The scheme's terms state this directly⁷.
• Energy efficiency funding is anchored to the EPC. A household cannot use the grant for a measure the certificate does not recommend, even if the measure would help⁷.

How much you can get: £7,500, rising to £9,000 in rural and island areas

The headline figures are consistent across the official guidance. For clean heating systems such as heat pumps, grant funding of up to £7,500 is available¹. For energy efficiency measures such as insulation, grant funding covers up to 75% of the combined cost of the measures, up to a maximum grant amount of £7,500¹. The scheme's terms confirm the same combined grant maximum of £7,500, rising to £9,000 with the rural uplift⁷.

The rural uplift is an extra £1,500, and it applies to both halves of the scheme: an uplift of £1,500 is available for remote rural and island homes on both the energy efficiency and clean heating grants³. The scheme's terms describe the same £1,500 as available for heat pump installations, heat network connections and energy efficiency grants⁷. Official announcements of the heat network extension repeat that an additional £1,500 of grant funding is available for those who qualify for the rural uplift¹².

The uplift recognises something real about energy costs and choices in remote areas, which households can read more about in energy costs in Scotland's islands and remote areas. Off the gas grid, clean heating is often less a choice than a necessity, and installation costs are typically higher.

One figure in the scheme's own terms sits apart from the rest: the terms also describe grant funding of up to £18,000, while the Scottish Government's guidance pages state £7,500⁷. The two figures differ, and the £7,500 figure is the one carried across the government's policy pages, progress reports and announcements¹. A household budgeting on the basis of the higher figure should confirm the position for its specific measures with the scheme before committing, since the terms and conditions govern the actual offer.

Borrowing details: interest-free terms, repayments and the 1.5% charge

The loan is optional, interest-free, and available for both clean heating and energy efficiency³. There is no interest to pay⁷. The Scottish Government describes the wider Home Energy Scotland offer as providing zero interest loans for energy efficiency and clean heating¹⁸.

The cost of the loan is a one-off administration fee of 1.5% of the total loan value, with a maximum charge of £150⁷. There is no administration fee for grant-only applications⁷. The minimum funding a household can apply for under the scheme, whether grant or loan, is £500⁷.

Repayment terms are set by loan size, and the scheme's terms give two versions of the bands. One states under £5,000 repaid over 5 years, £5,000 to £9,999 over 10 years, and more than £10,000 over 12 years; the other states up to £4,999 over 5 years, with the same 10-year and 12-year bands above⁷. The bands differ only at the boundary, and a household should confirm the term for its exact loan amount in its funding offer.

What households actually borrow is visible in the scheme's statistics. The average interest-free loan value for heat pumps, excluding the grant and before the rural uplift, was £4,076 in the period from December 2022 to March 2023, and £5,993 in 2023/24⁸. Those averages suggest that the loan is doing real work: for many heat pump installations, the grant does not cover the cost, and the loan fills the gap.

The loan also connects to other programmes. Where a home is selected for a future area-based scheme, the householder may be eligible for an interest-free loan through Home Energy Scotland to cover their contribution, and the HEEPS Area Based Schemes page explains that programme. Historically, Home Energy Scotland loans were also used where the Warmer Homes Scotland grant level was insufficient to cover the cost of measures¹⁹.

Applying step by step: survey, offer and installation

The process has two stages, and the sequence is fixed. First, the householder submits an application to request funding before any work takes place. Once the work has been completed, they submit a claim⁵. Energy Saving Trust aims to process all applications and claims within 10 working days of receiving all required documents⁵.

In order, a household moves through these steps:

1. Obtain the property's Energy Performance Certificate and check its "recommended measures" section, since only listed improvements are eligible for energy efficiency funding⁷.
2. Submit the funding application before any work takes place⁵.
3. Wait for the funding offer and accept it before installation begins⁷.
4. Have the work carried out within the claim window⁸.
5. Obtain a post-installation EPC and submit it with the claim to confirm the work⁷.

The Energy Performance Certificate drives the energy efficiency side. Only improvements listed in the "recommended measures" section of the EPC are eligible, so the certificate needs to be in hand before applying⁷. A post-installation EPC is then required and must be submitted with the claim, to confirm the work⁷. The loan can be used to pay for a pre and/or post-installation EPC, up to a maximum of £150 per certificate, but only where the certificate is not covered by a government-funded scheme⁷.

The rule that catches households out is the sequencing: no work before approval. The application must precede any work, and the funding offer must be accepted before installation begins. There is one partial exception: for renewable energy improvements only, not energy efficiency improvements, up to 60% of the funding can be drawn down after accepting the offer and before completing the work⁷. This exists because renewable installations can require large deposits, and it does not extend to fabric measures.

The scheme's legal footing is worth knowing. The scheme requirements are not set out in legislation or regulations; the terms and conditions are set by the Scottish Government⁶. That means the rules, amounts and deadlines on this page are administrative, and the Scottish Government can and does revise them. The terms the householder accepts in the funding offer are the ones that govern.

Timetables and how payments are made

Once a funding offer arrives, the clock starts. Applicants have a set period to complete the work and submit their claim, currently 9 months for the Grant and Loan Scheme⁸. This is longer than the 6 months applicants had to draw down funding under the previous Loan and Cashback Scheme¹¹.

Payment follows the claim. Payments are made within 10 working days of the scheme receiving a fully complete claim, plus an additional 3 to 5 working days for the BACS transfer⁷. Combined with the 10-working-day processing target for the claim itself, a household that submits a complete claim can reasonably expect the money within roughly three weeks⁵.

The monthly administrative data for the scheme runs from April 2025 to January 2026, and the scheme team can be emailed at heesgl@gov.scot for queries⁵. The word "complete" carries weight throughout: an incomplete claim, or a claim missing the post-installation EPC, will not start the payment clock⁷.

The bodies behind the scheme: Scottish Government, Energy Saving Trust, Home Energy Scotland

The scheme is Scottish Government funded. It is run by the Energy Saving Trust on the Scottish Government's behalf⁵, a position confirmed in Parliament's own research briefing on the scheme²⁰. The Energy Saving Trust manages the schemes through Home Energy Scotland, in partnership with advice providers and energy companies¹.

The administration contract is specific and dated. Energy Saving Trust was awarded a new contract, following a competitive tender, to administer and manage Scottish Government heat and energy efficiency schemes, with the contract starting on 1 December 2023 and an initial term running until November 2026²¹. The amount paid to Energy Saving Trust for administering the scheme from December 2023 onwards has been withheld under Regulation 10(5)(e) of the environmental information rules, on grounds of commercial confidentiality²¹.

Home Energy Scotland is the public face: funded by the Scottish Government, it provides free and impartial advice, and it is the referral partner for other schemes¹⁷. Households can call free on 0808 808 2282, with lines open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays²². Calls are free from landlines and most mobile networks²³. Home Energy Scotland also offers free advice on improving a home's energy efficiency, and its Funding Finder lets households search for the funding and support available to them²⁴.

For households comparing what is on offer across the UK, the differences between the four nations' energy grants explain why Scotland's package looks as it does, and the devolved and reserved energy powers page sets out which decisions sit in Edinburgh.

Where households stand once the scheme ends

The scheme changes a household's position substantially, but it does not make a home independent. A heat pump, even grant-funded, keeps the household on the electricity grid and on a supplier's tariff; a battery, even loan-funded, stores grid or solar electricity rather than replacing the grid. What the scheme does is shift the household off fossil heating and onto a fabric that wastes less of what it buys, which is the foundation any independence is built on.

The limits are worth stating as firmly as the benefits:

• The grant covers at most 75% of energy efficiency costs and never the whole job¹.
• Replacement heat pumps get no grant at all⁷.
• The loan is real money that must be repaid, over up to 12 years, even without interest⁷.
• The scheme's rules are administrative rather than legislative, so they can change without a vote in Parliament⁶.

Against that, the package is unmatched among the four nations: a non-means-tested grant, an interest-free loan, a rural uplift that recognises the higher costs of Scotland's islands and remote areas, and a free advice service behind it all. For a Scottish owner-occupier planning a retrofit, the scheme is the anchor around which other support, from area-based schemes to fuel poverty programmes, is arranged.