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Warm Homes: Local Grant 2026 — Eligibility, Amounts & How to Apply

Last reviewed · 9 minute read · England only

The Warm Homes: Local Grant — WHLG to its friends — is the largest direct cash grant available to English homeowners in 2026. It's the headline scheme within the £13.2 billion Warm Homes Plan launched as a full policy document on 20 January 2026, and it has been quietly delivering since 1 April 2025. If you're an English homeowner with a low household income and a poorly-rated home, this is almost certainly the first grant you should look at.

We're independent — we don't install heat pumps, we don't broker solar contracts, and we don't take referral fees on the WHLG itself (the grant goes to your delivery partner via your council). What follows is the version we'd give a friend.

What is the Warm Homes: Local Grant?

The WHLG is a direct capital grant for fuel-poor English households to fund energy-efficiency and low-carbon heating upgrades. Funding sits with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and is delivered through participating local authorities, each of which appoints a Retrofit Coordinator and a panel of TrustMark-registered installers. The homeowner makes no contribution to the works.

Crucially, the WHLG is not a replacement for ECO4 (which runs until 31 December 2026 — see our ECO4 guide). It's a parallel scheme designed to handle deeper, whole-home retrofits, particularly where ECO4's per-measure caps don't go far enough. Many households will at some point sit in the overlap between the two, and the rules on which one applies to which measure can be fiddly — we cover the stacking rules in our main grants pillar.

How much can you actually get?

The headline figure is up to £30,000 per home. In practice that's split into two pots:

  • Up to £15,000 for energy-efficiency improvements — loft, cavity wall, solid wall (internal or external), floor and pipe insulation; draught-proofing; energy-efficient doors and windows.
  • Up to £15,000 for low-carbon heating — air or ground source heat pumps, high-heat-retention storage heaters, or a connection to a heat network. Solar PV, batteries and smart heating controls also fall into this pot.

The cap is averaged across each local authority's portfolio by the scheme's March 2028 endpoint. That means a single home can occasionally exceed £15,000 in one pot if the LA balances it with cheaper installs elsewhere. Don't budget on the upside — assume the per-pot cap.

Who qualifies?

Property eligibility

  • The property must be in England. Devolved nations have their own schemes — see Home Energy Scotland, Nest (Wales) and NISEP (Northern Ireland).
  • It must be in a participating local authority area. Not every council is signed up — and several only joined late in 2025. The postcode tool on gov.uk is the authoritative router.
  • The EPC rating must be D, E, F or G. Homes rated C or above are excluded — the scheme is targeted at properties that need the biggest lift.
  • It must be your main residence; second homes and holiday lets don't qualify.
  • Park homes and houseboats have their own eligibility track within the scheme.

Household eligibility

  • Household income must be £36,000 or less per year (in most LA implementations, this is gross income after housing costs — confirm locally). This is the headline threshold and is more generous than the £31k cap used under HUG2.
  • You must be the homeowner, or you must be the tenant of a privately-rented property with written landlord consent.
  • Local authority and housing-association tenants don't use the WHLG — they go via the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and equivalent landlord-led schemes.

The April 2026 rule change you should know about

Before April 2026, both the WHLG and BUS required that your EPC have no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity insulation. This caught out a lot of applicants — you'd be told you needed to do "less efficient" work first before getting the grant for the bigger measure. That rule was scrapped in the April 2026 amendments. You can now apply for a heat pump or solar grant even if your loft insulation hasn't been topped up yet (though we still recommend doing the cheap insulation first — see our order-of-operations guide).

What you can spend it on

The scheme funds these measures (your LA may exclude some if their portfolio is unbalanced):

Energy-efficiency pot (up to £15,000)

  • Loft insulation (mineral wool or equivalent to 270mm+)
  • Cavity wall insulation
  • Solid wall insulation — internal or external (typically the biggest single budget item)
  • Floor insulation — suspended timber or solid
  • Pipe insulation, hot-water tank insulation
  • Draught-proofing
  • Energy-efficient doors and windows (limited circumstances)
  • Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) where deep retrofits need it

Low-carbon heating pot (up to £15,000)

  • Air source heat pumps
  • Ground source heat pumps
  • High-heat-retention storage heaters (where heat pumps aren't suitable)
  • Heat network connection
  • Solar PV panels
  • Solar battery storage
  • Smart heating controls and thermostats

How to apply, step by step

  1. Postcode check: Visit gov.uk/apply-warm-homes-local-grant and enter your postcode. If your council is participating, you'll be routed to their designated delivery partner.
  2. Eligibility screen: Provide proof of address (last 3 months of utility or council tax letters), income evidence (last 3 payslips or SA302), proof of ownership (mortgage statement or Land Registry title), and your EPC certificate (must be less than 10 years old — commission one for £45–£110 if expired).
  3. Retrofit survey: A Retrofit Coordinator (PAS 2035-qualified) visits to assess the property and recommend a measures package. This is the technical scope that drives the grant amount.
  4. Approval and scheduling: The delivery partner submits your application to DESNZ via the LA. Approval typically takes 4–8 weeks.
  5. Works: Delivered by TrustMark-registered installers contracted to your delivery partner. You don't pay anything — the grant covers everything.
  6. Sign-off: Post-install quality inspection by the Retrofit Coordinator. A new post-works EPC is generated.

Total typical end-to-end timeline: 12–20 weeks from initial application to install completion. Winter peaks (Oct–Feb) push this out further; if you can apply in spring or early summer, do.

Why applications get rejected

From the LA delivery partners we've spoken to, the most common rejection reasons are:

  • Income just above £36,000. The threshold is hard — there's no taper. If you're close, time your application to a tax year where your income drops.
  • Council not participating. Particularly common in rural English LAs where the WHLG roll-out has been slower. Check the postcode router quarterly; new councils onboard every few months.
  • Property already EPC C or above. Even one historic improvement (a new boiler, replacement glazing) can push a property over the line. There's nothing you can do about this — if your EPC is C, the WHLG isn't open to you.
  • Insufficient ownership evidence. Tenants applying without explicit landlord consent will be rejected. Get the landlord's permission in writing before you start.
  • Recent ECO4 install. If you've had ECO4-funded work in the last 24 months, the WHLG may exclude you for the same measures. Verify before applying.

Not sure if you qualify? Our 9-question eligibility check runs the WHLG rules engine plus 14 other UK schemes in 90 seconds.

Run the check →

Should you wait, or apply now?

We get this question a lot. Three scenarios where waiting is actually the right answer:

Wait if you have an oil or LPG boiler

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme rises to £9,000 from July 2026 for homes on oil or LPG. If your existing boiler is working and you can defer the heat pump install by a couple of months, that's £1,500 extra. The WHLG can be applied for in parallel, but if the heat pump is your main goal, BUS may be the better single route.

Wait if your council isn't participating yet

Don't shoehorn yourself into a neighbouring LA scheme — it doesn't work that way. New councils join the WHLG roll-out every few months. Check the postcode router quarterly and set a Google Alert for your local authority + "Warm Homes Local Grant."

Don't wait if your boiler is on its last legs

Conversely: if your existing boiler is breaking down, don't delay applying just to wait for the £9,000 BUS uplift in July. A broken boiler in winter is much more expensive than the £1,500 you'd save. Apply now via the fastest grant route available to you.

If you don't qualify, what else is available?

If your income is over £36,000 or your home is EPC C+, the WHLG isn't for you. But several other schemes might be:

  • Boiler Upgrade Scheme — £7,500 (£9,000 from July for oil/LPG, £2,500 air-to-air). No means test.
  • Smart Export Guarantee — paid for solar exports, no means test.
  • 0% VAT — automatic 20% saving on solar, heat pumps and insulation through to March 2027.
  • ECO4 — supplier-funded, benefits-tested, running until 31 December 2026.
  • Local council schemes — many LAs run their own top-up programmes outside the WHLG. Worth a search for your council + "energy grant."

Frequently asked questions

Is the Warm Homes Plan the same as the Warm Homes: Local Grant?

No. The Warm Homes Plan is the £13.2bn umbrella policy across England (with Barnett funding for the devolved nations). The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the headline scheme within the Plan that delivers direct cash grants to fuel-poor households. The Plan also includes a low-interest loan scheme (details due H2 2026), the existing ECO4 obligation extension, BUS, and the Clean Heat Market Mechanism on the supply side.

Can private landlords apply on behalf of tenants?

Yes — the WHLG accepts applications from private rented sector tenants with landlord consent, and many LAs are actively encouraging landlords to apply directly. If you're a landlord with a sub-EPC-C property in 2026, the WHLG plus the upcoming PRS minimum-EPC-C standard (a £10,000 spend cap applies from October 2025) makes this the cheapest way to upgrade your stock.

Does the WHLG cover new builds?

No. The scheme is for existing buildings. New builds (anything built post-2024 under current Building Regulations) should be hitting EPC C minimum already, and don't qualify even if they fall through the cracks.

What happens if my council leaves the scheme?

Once your application is approved and works contracted, withdrawal is rare and you'd typically be supported through to completion under the existing contract. If you're at the eligibility-screen stage when an LA pulls out, you'll need to wait for an alternative scheme or apply via a neighbouring delivery partner if their geography allows.

Can I top up the grant if my works cost more than £30,000?

Yes — homeowners can self-fund beyond the cap. Most LAs will tell you the funded scope and you can decide whether to commission additional works from the same installer or separately. The 0% VAT relief still applies to your top-up spend as long as the installer is VAT-registered.

Is the WHLG taxable?

No. Capital grants for fuel-poverty improvements are not taxable income. Don't declare it on your Self-Assessment.

Sources

Page changelog

  • 18 May 2026 — Initial publication. Reflects WHP policy document (20 Jan 2026), April 2026 EPC-recommendation rule scrap, £36k income threshold, 12–20 week timeline, ~£30k cap split £15k EE + £15k heating.

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