All work funded under the Green Homes Grant had to be completed by 31 March 2022, the final deadline for a scheme that had already stopped taking new applications1. The Installation Assurance Authority, an industry body whose members accepted the vouchers, told householders that "all work will need to be completed by 31st March 2022"1. The same date appears in installer guidance from the Renewable Energy Consumer Code, which stated that work had to be scheduled for completion, and the voucher redeemed, by 31 March 20222.
The scheme was launched by the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy in September 2020 to help homeowners in England improve energy efficiency, with £2bn allocated: £1.5bn for homeowners and £500m through local authorities1. Able-to-pay households could claim two thirds of the cost of installation, capped at £5,000, while those on income support or qualifying benefits could receive up to £10,000 covering the full cost1. Green Homes Grants were only available for homes in England, and new-build homes were not eligible2.
Vouchers were split into primary and secondary measures. A householder had to take at least one primary measure, such as solid wall, cavity wall, under-floor, loft or park home insulation, or a low carbon heating system such as an air source or ground source heat pump, solar thermal or biomass boiler, before a secondary measure could be claimed1. Secondary measures included double, triple or secondary glazing where single glazing was being replaced, energy-efficient doors replacing doors fitted before 2002, hot water tank insulation and thermostats, smart heating controls, zone controls, thermostatic radiator valves and draught proofing2. The value of a secondary measure voucher was capped at the value claimed for the primary measure2.
| Item | Able-to-pay | Low income |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum grant | £5,000 | £10,000 |
| Share of cost covered | Two thirds (66%) | 100% |
| Landlords eligible | Yes | No |
Sources:1
Installers had to be MCS-certified for the relevant technologies, a member of a Consumer Code approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, and TrustMark registered2. The scheme did not cover building a new extension or conversion, insulating a conservatory with no fixed heating, or installing a new fossil fuel boiler2. A householder could not apply if they had already received a grant from their local authority under the Local Authority Delivery Scheme2.
Why it matters for households
The deadline marked the end of the route for a householder to have insulation or low carbon heating part-funded at the point of installation. For a home that missed it, the cost of solid wall insulation, under-floor insulation or a heat pump fell back to the householder or to whatever scheme replaced it. The grant was structured so that fabric measures came first: without a primary measure, no secondary measure such as glazing, draught proofing or heating controls could be claimed1. That ordering shaped which improvements homes in England actually received, and it means the insulation and heating work completed under the scheme is now fixed in the housing stock, while homes that did not take part retain their original performance. The Green Homes Grant sat alongside earlier closed programmes, and the pattern of short application windows and hard completion dates is common to the closed insulation schemes that preceded and followed it. Installers who built a workload around the vouchers faced the same cliff edge, which is covered in the guide to Green Homes Grant installers.
What happens next
No further steps under the Green Homes Grant have been reported. The scheme is closed, and the sources give no successor arrangement for the measures it funded. Householders searching for current support are directed to the wider picture of home energy grants and the grants and schemes hub.
Sources3 cited
- IAA Members accepting Green Homes Grant vouchers, theiaa.co.uk
- Microsoft Word - Installer FAQs v2, recc.org.uk
- Green Homes Grant: Maximising Your Home’s Energy-Efficiency - Warmup, warmup.co.uk