The government has published details of how £630m will be spent through its Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) for privately owned properties and £780m through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund for homes owned by local authorities and other social housing providers1. The funding was announced last September, and the details were published in March 20231.
Social housing will also receive a further £1.1bn of match funding from local authorities, social housing providers and charities1. The government says the scheme will provide energy efficiency improvements for 115,000 homes with an EPC rating of C or lower and support 20,000 construction and home retrofit jobs1.
A further £409m will be spent through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, divided between 114 English public sector bodies aiming to improve the energy efficiency of hospitals, schools, universities, museums and leisure centres1. That sits within the UK's commitment to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 20371.
The funding will be available from April for measures including insulation of lofts and walls, new windows and doors and draught proofing measures, as well as the installation of heat pumps and solar panels1.
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) gave the plan a cautious welcome, saying the investment could be an important step towards meeting energy security and carbon reduction goals, but only if it was focused on the long-term performance of buildings and not confined to one-off installations1.
Fox added that it is not enough to carry out one-off installations, and that retrofit measures must be looked at in terms of how they are maintained and serviced throughout their lifetime1. He said this would also require a major step up of investment in training and recruitment to ensure a suitably competent workforce1.
According to government figures cited by BESA, 46% of UK housing has an EPC rating of C or above, up from 9% in 2008, with 66% of social housing said to meet that standard1. Legislation requiring all homes to achieve a C rating by 2035 is also under consideration1.
Why it matters for households
The two schemes split along ownership lines. The Home Upgrade Grant covers privately owned properties, while the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund covers homes owned by councils and other social housing providers1. For a household in social housing, the route to insulation, glazing or a heat pump runs through the landlord rather than the occupant, which is a different application path from the privately owned sector. The site's guide to Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants for social housing sets out how that boundary works in practice.
The measures listed, loft and wall insulation, new windows and doors, draught proofing, heat pumps and solar panels, are the fabric and generation measures that reduce how much energy a home needs to buy and how much of it comes from the grid1. That is the practical content of household energy independence: a home that holds its heat and can generate some of its own power is less exposed to price movements.
The EPC C threshold matters because eligibility is tied to it. Homes rated C or lower are the target group for the 115,000 improvements the government expects1. Households wanting to know where they sit can read the wider guide to home energy grants and schemes.
What happens next
Funding becomes available from April1. The government has not, in this announcement, set out how individual households apply, and no application dates or per-home amounts have been reported1. BESA's warning about maintenance and workforce capacity suggests delivery, rather than announcement, is the open question1.