The Scottish Government launched a new phase of Warmer Homes Scotland on 2 October 2023, with what it described as a greater focus on clean heating where this is both financially and technically feasible1. The scheme is the government's national fuel poverty programme, delivered by Warmworks, and offers measures such as insulation and clean heating systems to households living in or at risk of fuel poverty1.
"We launched the new phase of Warmer Homes Scotland on 2 October 2023, with a greater focus on clean heating where this is both financially and technically feasible."
The scheme has been operating since September 2015 and had helped more than 39,000 households throughout Scotland as of the 2024 progress report1. A later progress report, published 2 October 2025, put the figure at more than 46,000 households2. It mainly supports owner occupiers but also covers tenants in private rented homes1. The higher grant limits per household under the new phase allow whole-house retrofit and more measures in individual properties1.
In financial year 2023-24, the previous and new Warmer Homes Scotland schemes together helped install around 1,400 renewables and clean heat measures and over 9,000 energy efficiency measures in 5,000 homes1. Under the current scheme in that year, 3,607 energy efficiency measures were installed, of which 2,264 were insulation and 1,343 were condensing gas boilers, alongside 785 other renewables and clean heat measures, of which 472 were zero direct emission heating or biomass and 313 were solar PV or battery storage1. The programme continued to install new gas boilers because they can currently be cheaper to run due to high electricity costs and can be installed quicker, and the first months of the new scheme focused on priority customers who had been waiting while the scheme was paused, which the government expected increased the proportion of fossil fuel heating installed to date1.
On funding, a Freedom of Information release gives total actual spend on Warmer Homes Scotland of £38.8m in 2022/23, £59.8m in 2023/24 and £90.4m in 2024/25, against an allocation of £85m in 2024/25, initially £65m and raised to £85m in winter 2024/53. A separate government report states that the scheme was re-launched in October 2023 with more funding and that £85 million was allocated in financial year 2024/25, described as the scheme's highest budget to date4. The same FOI release reports an average modelled reduction in fuel bills of £152 per year per household in 2022/23, £292 under the previous scheme and £580 under the new scheme in 2023/24, and an average modelled gain of 6.4 SAP points per household in 2022/23, with average SAP improvements of 6.9 and 5.6 for the two schemes in 2023/243.
Why it matters for households
Warmer Homes Scotland is one route by which a household in or at risk of fuel poverty can have insulation and a heating system installed at little or no cost, and the phase launched in October 2023 changed what that package is likely to contain. The government's stated preference is a clean heating system in the first instance where technically appropriate, but it says such systems will not be installed in households where doing so would push people into fuel poverty or worsen its depth1. That qualification matters where a heat pump or other electric heating would raise running costs relative to a gas boiler, and the scheme's continued installation of gas boilers reflects the current gap between gas and electricity prices1. For a home's energy independence, the practical effect is a trade-off between lower carbon emissions and lower running costs, decided case by case rather than by a single rule. Eligibility, the measures available and how the scheme compares with Home Energy Scotland grants and loans and council area-based schemes all shape what an individual household can obtain.
What happens next
The sources do not set out a further phase or end date for Warmer Homes Scotland. The 2025 progress report records that the scheme has helped more than 46,000 households and repeats the October 2023 launch description, but gives no dated next step for the programme2. The FOI release records the 2024/25 allocation as £85m, raised from an initial £65m in winter 2024/53.
Sources4 cited
- 4. Activities (policy and delivery) - Heat in Buildings: progress report 2024 - gov.scot, gov.scot
- 4. Activities (policy and delivery) - Heat in Buildings: progress report 2025 - gov.scot, gov.scot
- Author: Edmund Chapman, gov.scot
- Tackling Fuel Poverty in Scotland: Periodic Report 2021 - 2024, gov.scot