Warm Homes: Local Grant

Your household must live in England, in an existing home that you own or rent privately. Its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), which rates the home's energy efficiency, must be D, E, F or G. You can find the rating when you apply. Homes rated A–C and new or self-built homes that have never been occupied are ineligible.

You need to qualify through only one of these income routes:

• Household income: normally £36,000 a year or less before tax. You may also qualify above this level if your income after tax and rent or mortgage payments is below the scheme's threshold for your household size and composition. Council tax, energy bills and ground rent are not deducted for that test.
• Postcode: you live in a postcode on the scheme's eligible list, without a separate income check.
• 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. A lodger or adult in full-time education receiving benefits does not qualify the household through this route.
• Council assessment under ECO Flex Route 2: for homes rated E–G, the council can use at least two compatible indicators of low income or vulnerability. Examples include eligibility for council tax reduction or free school meals. These examples do not automatically qualify you in any combination: the council checks the permitted combinations in Table 5 of the scheme's policy guidance and the ECO Flex local-authority rules.

For the gross-income calculation, income from adults in full-time education and lodgers is excluded, but rent you receive from lodgers counts. Specified disability-related benefits are also excluded. Councils verify eligibility and can decline support where they judge a household is not on a low income or at risk of being unable to afford adequate heating, including where it has substantial savings or assets.

Further conditions apply:

• Private rentals: an F- or G-rated property needs a registered exemption from the legal minimum energy-efficiency requirements for rented homes. Landlords must declare that they do not intend to raise rent as a direct result of the funded work. The grant and other subsidies must remain within the landlord's £315,000 public-subsidy limit over the current and previous two financial years.
• Park homes: these can qualify if they are your permanent residence, are assessed as equivalent to EPC D–G and are expected to remain in place throughout the longest guarantee period for the installed measures.
• Previous upgrades: if your home received Home Upgrade Grant or Local Authority Delivery funding, the new work must either bring it to EPC C or include low-carbon heating.
• Connected-building projects: councils can include otherwise income-ineligible homes only where leaving them out would harm the collective upgrade—for example, by preventing continuous external wall insulation. The homes must be physically connected, not just in the same street or area. Either the block's average gross household income must be below £36,000, or at least 75% of households must have an average income no higher than £36,000. Social housing is only eligible as a limited part of these connected-building upgrades, no more than 10% of a council project's homes, with its landlord paying at least 50% of costs.

Greater Manchester and West Midlands combined-authority areas receive separate devolved funding rather than participating in the national scheme. For enquiries about those separate routes, contact lead@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk for Greater Manchester or devolved.retrofit@wmca.org.uk for the West Midlands.

Status

Laufende Antragstellung

Beschränkungen dieser Antragsrunde

• Improvements depend on your local council having funding available and agreeing suitable work after a home survey.

Use Check eligibility and apply on GOV.UK. Your council will usually contact you within 10 working days to get more information and arrange a home survey. For help using the application service, call 0800 098 7950.

The council checks the home's eligibility, ownership, your residence and identity. Depending on your qualifying route, it also needs evidence of benefits or household income. Private landlords must complete the scheme's landlord declaration before upgrades.