Warm Homes Local Grant: who qualifies and which councils take part
For homes on lower incomes, England's main insulation grant is the Warm Homes: Local Grant. It's run by your council, and qualifying households don't pay anything.
1 of 3
3 of 4
3 of 3
Also worth a look
This answer comes from the published scheme rules. It is not a final decision: the scheme or your council makes that. We are an independent guide, not part of any scheme.
- Free
- For owners and tenants who qualify
- £16,600 + £16,600
- Average per home for insulation, then the same for heating
- £36,000
- The most a household can earn under the income test, one of three tests
Who qualifies for a Warm Homes Local Grant
This grant is only for homes in England, and you must meet all three conditions:
- You own the home, or you rent it from a private landlord. Funding for most council or housing association homes comes from elsewhere.
- Your home is rated EPC D, E, F or G. Energy performance certificates (EPCs) rate homes on a scale where A costs least to heat and G costs most.
- Your household passes at least one of the three tests below.
| Test | You qualify if |
|---|---|
| Postcode | A government list of the lowest-income areas includes your postcode. |
| Benefits | Someone who lives with you gets one of these benefits: Universal Credit, Income Support, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance. |
| Income | The combined yearly income of everyone in the home is under £36,000 before tax. Earn more than that? You may still qualify if the money left after rent or mortgage is low enough. Examples: £20,000 for a single person, or £28,000 for couples with two children. |
A park home (a mobile home on a residential site) is covered too, as long as you live in it all year. It doesn't matter how the home is heated now, or whether it is on mains gas. The tests are set out in the July 2026 scheme guidance. The grant checker checks your postcode against the list.
Warm Homes Local Grant councils taking part
The July 2026 list has 73 projects covering 277 councils. Plenty of smaller councils are part of a bigger council's project, so if your council doesn't run its own project, type its name below to find the one it belongs to. In Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, the regional authority the councils share holds the money for all of them.
No council by that name is on the July 2026 list. Apply through GOV.UK anyway, since many councils take part through a bigger council's project.
| Council running the project | Funding | Other councils in the project |
|---|---|---|
| Ashford | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Barking and Dagenham | £2,644,879 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Barnsley | £1,538,552 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Basildon | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Blackpool | £35,324,700 | Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Ribble Valley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Wyre |
| Bradford | £6,330,820 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Bristol, City of | £12,662,001 | Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset |
| Broadland | £4,713,154 | Breckland, North Norfolk, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, South Norfolk |
| Broxbourne | £1,070,786 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Buckinghamshire | £3,023,682 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Calderdale | £3,206,150 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Cambridge | £8,805,153 | East Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire, Peterborough |
| Canterbury | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Central Bedfordshire | £1,000,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Cheshire East | £8,392,725 | Cheshire West and Chester, Warrington |
| Cornwall | £3,383,632 | Isles of Scilly |
| County Durham | £2,055,853 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Dacorum | £2,337,982 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Darlington | £13,953,865 | Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland |
| Devon | £4,064,026 | East Devon, Exeter, Mid Devon, North Devon, Teignbridge, Torbay, Torridge |
| Doncaster | £1,604,111 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Dorset | £4,441,457 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole |
| Dover | £2,186,318 | None, the council runs it alone |
| East Hertfordshire | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| East Lindsey | £6,069,746 | Boston, South Holland |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Essex | £6,000,000 | Braintree, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Maldon, Rochford, Tendring, Uttlesford, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock |
| Gateshead | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Gravesham | £1,117,648 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Great Yarmouth | £2,638,910 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Greater London Authority | £53,470,024 | The City of London and every London borough except Barking and Dagenham, which runs its own project, and Croydon, which is in the Portsmouth project |
| Hartlepool | £2,391,408 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Kingston upon Hull, City of | £3,402,806 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Leeds | £5,963,439 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Leicester | £4,507,699 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Lewes | £4,781,852 | Eastbourne, Hastings, Rother, Wealden, East Sussex |
| Liverpool City Region Combined Authority | £31,805,813 | Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens, Wirral |
| Medway | £1,305,900 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Midlands Net Zero Hub | £69,859,402 | Amber Valley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derby, Derbyshire Dales, Erewash, High Peak, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Oadby and Wigston, Rushcliffe, South Derbyshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick, Malvern Hills, Worcester, Wychavon, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth, Ashfield, Broxtowe, Gedling, Blaby, Harborough, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, North West Leicestershire, Charnwood, North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Lincoln, North Kesteven, West Lindsey, South Kesteven, Rugby |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £290,551 | None, the council runs it alone |
| North East Derbyshire | £5,160,618 | None, the council runs it alone |
| North Hertfordshire | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| North Northamptonshire | £2,003,912 | None, the council runs it alone |
| North Tyneside | £5,043,385 | None, the council runs it alone |
| North Yorkshire | £5,974,078 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Northumberland | £2,695,853 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Norwich | £5,504,964 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Oxfordshire | £4,394,990 | Cherwell, Oxford, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse, West Oxfordshire |
| Plymouth | £3,024,995 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Portsmouth | £34,807,254 | Adur, Arun, Basingstoke and Deane, Bedford, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Chichester, Crawley, Croydon, East Hampshire, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Hart, Havant, Horsham, Isle of Wight, Luton, Mid Sussex, Milton Keynes, New Forest, Reading, Rushmoor, Rutland, Southampton, Test Valley, West Berkshire, Winchester, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham, Worthing |
| Sevenoaks | £1,670,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Sheffield | £4,006,008 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Shropshire | £7,418,506 | Herefordshire, County of, Telford and Wrekin |
| Slough | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Somerset | £7,035,064 | None, the council runs it alone |
| South Tyneside | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| St Albans | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Stevenage | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Stroud | £5,481,399 | South Gloucestershire, Cotswold, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury |
| Suffolk | £6,183,974 | Babergh, East Suffolk, Ipswich, Mid Suffolk, West Suffolk |
| Sunderland | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Surrey | £13,914,375 | Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Elmbridge, Woking, Tandridge, Mole Valley, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley, Runnymede, Reigate and Banstead |
| Thanet | £1,548,220 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Tunbridge Wells | £1,382,964 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Wakefield | £1,499,667 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Watford | £3,750,031 | Three Rivers |
| Welwyn Hatfield | £1,500,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| West Devon | £3,315,320 | South Hams |
| West Northamptonshire | £2,606,931 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Westmorland and Furness | £12,328,580 | Cumberland |
| Wiltshire | £3,035,320 | None, the council runs it alone |
| Wyre Forest | £1,600,000 | None, the council runs it alone |
| York | £2,037,677 | None, the council runs it alone |
council-grant-routes.csv lists every council and its project, ready to download. The source is the GOV.UK list of successful councils, revised in July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.
What the grant pays for
Two sorts of work are covered: jobs that stop heat escaping, and a new heating system that doesn't burn gas, oil or coal. For each kind of work, councils spend about £16,600 per home on average. Some homes get more and some less, depending on what the survey finds. Each limit was £15,000 until July 2026, when it was raised to keep up with rising prices.
- Energy performance: draught-proofing, windows, doors and smart heating controls (thermostats you can set from your phone or on a timer), plus insulation in the walls, the loft and under the floor.
- Low carbon heating: a heat pump, which warms the home with heat taken from the outside air or the ground, or modern electric storage heaters that hold their warmth for longer.
- The survey can also recommend solar panels, which then qualify.
You can't use it for a gas boiler, even a new one, or for heating that runs on oil, gas or coal. If the home isn't on mains gas, it won't pay for a hybrid, a heat pump that works alongside a boiler. The council tries to improve your home to EPC C. If the home can't reach C, you still get the work. Details are in the scheme guidance.
Private landlords and tenants
Tenants pay nothing, but the landlord has to agree to the work.
- One home per landlord is paid in full, up to £33,200, at no cost to them.
- For each extra home after the first, the landlord pays half the cost and the grant pays the other half, up to £16,600.
- £315,000 is the most any one landlord can receive, because the law caps public money for a business at that sum.
- A rented home rated F or G only gets help if the landlord holds an official exemption that lets them rent it out below the legal minimum rating.
Unless they're exempt, private landlords must reach EPC C in their homes from October 2030. They never need to spend over £10,000 on this. The rules come from both the scheme guidance and the Warm Homes Plan.
How to apply
- Check and apply online through GOV.UK's Warm Homes: Local Grant service.
- Usually, you'll hear from your council within 10 working days.
- If you qualify and money is available, the council books a survey of your home.
- The installers working for the council carry out the agreed work. Owners and tenants don't pay anything.
Funding runs from April 2025 until 31 March 2028. In 2027/28 the government plans to merge this grant with the fund that pays for council and housing association homes. That single scheme for households on low incomes sits under the Warm Homes Plan.
If you don't qualify for the Warm Homes: Local Grant
- The Boiler Upgrade Scheme takes £7,500 off a heat pump, whatever you earn.
- The Warm Homes Loan Scheme offers cheaper loans for solar panels, batteries and heat pumps.
- Paying for loft or cavity wall insulation yourself often pays back within a few years.
ECO4 funding and ECO4 Flex: council routes
Councils used ECO4 Flex to refer homes to ECO4 before this grant existed. ECO4 only finishes work that was agreed earlier, so there's no new ECO4 funding. The council route now goes through the Warm Homes Local Grant. Try the ECO4 page, or see Ofgem's guidance aimed at councils.
Questions people ask about the Warm Homes: Local Grant
Do you have to pay for the Warm Homes: Local Grant?
No, not if you're an owner or a tenant who qualifies. The council arranges the agreed work and pays for it. A private landlord pays half for every home after the first.
When does the council get back to you?
After you apply, councils generally respond within 10 working days, if funding is still available.
If my council isn't listed, can I still apply?
Go ahead and apply through GOV.UK. Funding reaches over 97% of eligible councils in England. For Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, the combined authority provides the money.
Could I have a new gas boiler fitted?
No. The grant won't pay for gas boilers or for heating that runs on any other fossil fuel.
Are park homes covered?
Yes, if you live in the park home as your permanent home.
Where can I find my EPC rating?
Use Find an energy certificate to search by postcode. It's the GOV.UK EPC register for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A certificate is valid for 10 years and puts your home into a band between A and G.
Get an installer survey quote
Not eligible, or your council has no funding left? Accredited installers near you can survey the home and quote.