Warm Homes Plan 2026: Eligibility, Heat Pump and Solar Grants, and What Replaces ECO4

What the Warm Homes Plan funds

The plan commits about £15 billion of public investment over this Parliament, with spending profiled to 2029/30. It pays for grants for low-income households, heat pump grants, low-interest loans and heat networks. It is a funding programme, not one application form, so you apply to the individual schemes it pays for.

The government’s stated aims are to upgrade up to five million homes and lift up to one million families out of fuel poverty by 2030. The plan also says new minimum energy efficiency standards will apply to private and social landlords.

The Warm Home Discount is different help. It is a one-off £150 discount off an electricity bill, usually applied automatically if you are eligible. GOV.UK says the Warm Home Discount Scheme reopens in October 2026 for winter 2026 to 2027. Our Warm Home Discount guide covers who gets it and the dates for this winter.

Who qualifies for the Warm Homes Plan

There is no single test, because the plan pays for several schemes. The main free route is the Warm Homes: Local Grant, for privately owned or rented homes in England with an EPC rating of D to G. GOV.UK says household income must usually be £36,000 a year or less, with a qualifying postcode or benefit as other ways in.

Warm Homes: Local Grant, the three ways in

You need to meet one of these. The rules come from the GOV.UK application page and the DESNZ policy guidance for councils.

• Postcode. Your home is in an area in income deciles 1 or 2 of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. GOV.UK publishes the list of eligible postcodes.
• Benefits. Someone in your household receives Housing Benefit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit or Universal Credit. Households that qualify through route 2 of ECO Flex also count.
• Income. Your gross household income is £36,000 a year or less. DESNZ also sets an after-housing-costs threshold that depends on household make-up.

GOV.UK says £36,000 or less, while DESNZ’s guidance for councils says below £36,000. If your household income is exactly on the line, ask your council which test it applies.

Home and tenure rules

• The home must be in England. The Local Grant is not available in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
• It must be privately owned, by you or your landlord, and be an existing home. New builds and self-builds that have not been lived in are excluded. Gas and off-gas homes can both qualify, and park homes can qualify if they are the household’s permanent residence.
• It must have an EPC rating of D, E, F or G. Homes rated A to C are ineligible in all circumstances. You can find your EPC when you apply.
• Owner-occupiers and tenants are not expected to contribute to the cost. If you rent privately, your landlord has to take part: DESNZ guidance requires a landlord declaration, and a landlord can have one home fully funded with a 50% contribution for further homes.
• If you rent privately in an F or G rated home, Citizens Advice says the landlord must have registered the property as exempt from the minimum energy efficiency standard. GOV.UK guidance says landlords cannot let a property rated below E without a valid exemption.
• Social housing is generally excluded, with limited in-fill exceptions that councils control. Citizens Advice suggests asking your social landlord whether they applied for funding through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund.

Which scheme to check first

Four illustrative examples

These examples apply the published rules to made-up households. They are not real customers, they use no real outcomes, and none of them promises that a scheme will pay for anything.

What you can get: heat pumps, insulation, solar and batteries

Insulation, heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and smart controls are all funded somewhere in the plan, but no one scheme pays for everything. The Local Grant covers the widest range. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays only for low-carbon heating. Loans cover heat pumps, solar and batteries, but not insulation.

Warm Homes Plan heat pumps

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme gives £7,500 towards an air source heat pump or a ground source heat pump, £5,000 towards a biomass boiler and £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump. Until March 2027 there is an extra £1,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump if the property is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection. You cannot get a grant for a hybrid system that combines a gas boiler with a heat pump. Our guide to the air source heat pump grant covers the practical side.

Insulation

Insulation is funded through the Local Grant when a council survey recommends it. The Great British Insulation Scheme, which also paid for insulation, closed on 31 March 2026. Our insulation grant guide explains the measures in more detail.

Will the Warm Homes Plan pay for a new gas boiler?

No. DESNZ guidance for councils says new gas boilers cannot be funded by the Local Grant. In a home on mains gas, a heat pump fitted alongside a new gas boiler can be funded only for the heat pump part. Ofgem says ECO4 can include upgrading a heating system, but only until 31 December 2026. Gas boilers are not banned in existing homes, though. Our gas boiler ban guide explains what the Future Homes Standard changes.

Loans

The Warm Homes Loan Scheme is lender-led and is aimed at owner-occupiers and private landlords. The government pays participating lenders a grant of up to 20% of each loan to support zero and low-interest lending. It does not fund insulation, and the loan caps are £15,000 for solar, £15,000 for a battery and £20,000 for an air-to-water heat pump before any Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted.

The scheme rules say the first consumer launch phase runs from September 2026. We have not confirmed which lenders are offering loans yet, so ask a lender directly before planning around one.

Is there a free solar panels grant?

Not for everyone. The only free route in the official sources is the Warm Homes: Local Grant, where councils can fit solar panels in eligible low-income homes in England. Other households pay, with help from loans and a zero rate of VAT on solar installations until 31 March 2027.

• Free through the Local Grant. You must meet the eligibility rules above, your council must have funding, and the home survey must suggest solar. GOV.UK lists solar panels among the improvements a council might arrange.
• Most common measure so far. DESNZ statistics published on 27 August 2026 say solar PV was 38% of the installations reported by the end of July 2026. The figures are provisional.
• Loans for everyone else. The Warm Homes Loan Scheme allows loans of up to £15,000 for solar panels and up to £15,000 for a battery. These are loans, so you repay them.
• VAT. HMRC says the zero rate for installing energy-saving materials, including solar panels and batteries in homes, applies to 31 March 2027. From 1 April 2027 the reduced rate of 5% applies.

Treat adverts that promise free solar panels to every household with caution. Our solar panels grant guide sets out what is and is not funded, and our guide to spotting scams explains how to check an installer, including us.

Warm Homes: Local Grant today

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the live, free scheme under the plan. DESNZ allocated £500 million for delivery from April 2025 to March 2028, shared across 74 projects covering 271 councils in England. You apply on GOV.UK, and your council arranges a survey and pays for agreed work if it has funding.

How to apply, step by step

1. Check the home and household rules. Your home must be in England, privately owned or privately rented, with an EPC rating of D to G. Your household must meet the postcode, benefit or income rule.
2. Apply on GOV.UK. Use the Warm Homes: Local Grant service on GOV.UK. You can call the helpline on 0800 098 7950 if you need help to apply.
3. Wait for your council to contact you. Your council usually contacts you within 10 working days to get more information and arrange a home survey.
4. Have the home survey. The survey looks at how your home could be made more energy efficient. The council might suggest insulation, an air source heat pump, smart controls or solar panels.
5. Agree the work. Your council organises and pays for the improvements you agree. If you have a landlord, they may need to pay for some of the work.

The helpline is open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 12pm. Citizens Advice notes that the grant is only available in some areas, so your council decides whether it can help.

What councils can spend per home

DESNZ sets cost caps of £16,600 per home for energy performance upgrades and £16,600 per home for low-carbon heating. Councils must meet the caps on average across a project, so an individual home can cost more or less.

Delivery so far

The August 2026 statistics report around 11,250 measures in around 5,470 households up to the end of July 2026. They are based on returns from 67 of the 74 grant recipients, are provisional, and DESNZ expects revisions to be mainly upward. Solar PV was 38% of installations, insulation about 24% of measures and batteries 18%.

For a closer comparison with ECO4 and the closed insulation scheme, read our Warm Homes Local Grant vs ECO4 guide.

Warm Homes Plan vs ECO4: what replaces ECO4?

ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026 and there will be no ECO5. The government has said there will be no successor supplier obligation. Support for low-income homes instead comes from taxpayer-funded grants, starting with the Warm Homes: Local Grant. The Great British Insulation Scheme already closed on 31 March 2026.

The nine-month extension does not add targets. DESNZ says it gives suppliers more time to meet existing targets and remediate non-compliant installations. In the same response the government said it would put an extra £1.5 billion of grant funding into low-income upgrades instead of a successor obligation.

For the background on the closed insulation scheme, see our Great British Insulation Scheme guide.

Timeline: what is confirmed and what is not

These are the dates that matter for households. “Planned” means a government document says it is intended but we have not seen it confirmed as live.

How to apply for the Warm Homes Plan

You do not apply to the Warm Homes Plan itself. You apply to the scheme it funds that fits your home. Start with the “which scheme to check first” table above, then act on the route that fits you.

• Local Grant. Apply on the GOV.UK Local Grant service. It checks your eligibility and can find your EPC if you do not know it.
• Heat pump. See the Boiler Upgrade Scheme page on GOV.UK and our heat pump grant guide.
• ECO4. Citizens Advice says to apply through your council or an energy supplier. You can also use our free eligibility check, which is built for ECO4 support that closes on 31 December 2026.

You should not need to pay to apply for the Local Grant. GOV.UK says your council organises and pays for the improvements you agree.

Warm Homes Plan FAQ

About this page

Who runs this site. ApplyFreeBoiler.uk is run by Reliant Energy Solutions Ltd, company number 16100301, registered at 15 Cardigan Drive, Bury, BL9 9LG. Companies House lists it as incorporated on 25 November 2024. It is an ECO4 heating and insulation installer that surveys homes, installs the work and submits it under ECO4.

Conflict of interest. We install under ECO4, so we gain when people check and use ECO4 before it closes. That is why this page names the other routes, says what each one pays for, and tells you plainly that ECO4 has no successor.

How we checked it. On 7 October 2026 we read the primary documents listed below, from GOV.UK, DESNZ, Ofgem, HMRC, Citizens Advice and Companies House. We did not take rules or figures from comparison sites or other installers. Where sources differ, we say so, and where we could not confirm something, we mark it as not yet announced.

Review and updates. This page was written by the ApplyFreeBoiler Team and reviewed by the company director, Reliant Energy Solutions Ltd. It follows our editorial policy. We re-check it when the government publishes new rules, and we will review it again after ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026.

Changelog. 7 October 2026: rewritten around official sources, with a confirmed and not-yet-announced timeline, updated ECO4 and Local Grant figures, and a new FAQ. 11 August 2026: first published.

Sources

Every figure and rule on this page comes from these sources. We last checked them on 7 October 2026. Rules change, so confirm the live GOV.UK page before you apply.