Warm Homes: Local Grant, who qualifies and how to apply

The short answer

The Warm Homes: Local Grant fully funds a package of home energy upgrades, insulation, an air source heat pump where the property suits one, and solar panels, for households in England that meet one of three qualifying routes: a household income test, a lower-income postcode, or a qualifying benefit. Your local council delivers the work, not a national contractor, and GOV.UK's consumer page states no grant value per household, only that eligible measures are installed at no cost to you. The guidance for councils does set cost caps of £16,600 per home for energy performance upgrades and £16,600 for low carbon heating.

Who qualifies: three routes in

You need to be in England, own or privately rent the property (so it is not social housing), and hold an Energy Performance Certificate rated D, E, F or G. On top of that, one of the following three needs to be true.

Eligibility routes per DESNZ's Warm Homes: Local Grant policy guidance, July 2026, and GOV.UK's own apply page, checked 25 September 2026 and re-checked 28 October 2026. You only need to meet one of the three routes, not all of them.

What it actually covers

The package is assessed per home rather than fixed in advance, which is why there is no single grant amount. GOV.UK's own scope covers three categories. If you do not qualify, or would rather borrow than wait for a council, the Warm Homes Loan Scheme launched on 26 to 27 October 2026: it has no income test, but it is a loan from one of ten named lenders, not free work. See the Warm Homes Loan Scheme page, how to apply, the ten lenders and the solar and battery caps, or Warm Home Discount vs Warm Homes Loan if you were looking for the £150 bill discount. GOV.UK says you cannot use a Warm Homes loan and other government funding to pay for the same improvement.

• Insulation: wall, loft and underfloor insulation, aimed at bringing an EPC D to G property up to a more efficient rating before or alongside any heating upgrade.
• Low carbon heating: an air source heat pump, where the property is assessed as suitable for one, plus smart heating controls.
• Solar panels: rooftop solar PV, where the property and roof are assessed as suitable.

Whether your own property gets all three, one, or two of them depends on the survey your council or its contractor carries out. A flat with no roof access is not going to be offered solar; a well-insulated home might be offered a heat pump without further insulation work. The point of the survey is to decide what your specific property needs, not to hand out a fixed bundle.

How to apply

How this differs from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, covered in full in our Boiler Upgrade Scheme guide, is a fixed £7,500 (£9,000 for off-gas homes replacing an oil or LPG system, until 31 March 2027) deducted from an installation quote, open to any property owner in England or Wales with no income test at all. The Local Grant is the opposite shape: means-tested rather than universal, delivered through your council rather than a national voucher scheme, fully funded rather than a fixed contribution, and covering insulation and solar alongside a heat pump rather than heating alone. If you do not meet any of the Local Grant's three routes in, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is very likely still open to you for a heat pump specifically. Our Warm Homes Plan guide covers how both of these, and the Warm Homes Loan Scheme (launched 26 to 27 October 2026), sit together.

What isn't covered

• Social housing, which sits outside this scheme (separate funding routes apply to social landlords).
• Properties outside England: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own devolved equivalent, separately funded.
• A household above the income threshold, outside a qualifying postcode, and with no qualifying benefit: none of the three routes applies, so the Local Grant itself is not available, though the Boiler Upgrade Scheme may still be.
• A guaranteed solar or heat pump outcome: the survey decides what your specific property is offered, and not every home qualifying for the scheme will be offered every measure.

Why your council runs it, not a national portal

Unlike the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which pays out through a national voucher regardless of where in England or Wales you are, the Local Grant is funded through allocations made directly to local authorities, who then deliver the surveys and the work in their own area. That has a practical consequence: how quickly your application moves depends partly on your own council's funding allocation and capacity, not on a single national queue. Two neighbouring households in different council areas can have genuinely different waiting times for the same scheme, which is worth knowing before you compare notes with someone in a different postcode.

What an Income Decile postcode actually means

The postcode route uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation, the government's standard measure of relative deprivation across England, split into ten deciles from most to least deprived. Falling in Income Decile 1 or 2 means your local area sits among the 20% most income-deprived areas in the country by this measure, based on the proportion of the local population experiencing income deprivation, not your own individual income. That is why the postcode route exists alongside the income test: some households in a low-income area are themselves above £36,000, and some households below £36,000 live outside a qualifying postcode. The three routes exist precisely so that either circumstance is still covered.

Getting ready before you apply

• Find your EPC rating and its date. If your property has never had one, or the certificate has expired, you will likely need a new EPC assessed before or alongside your application.
• Work out roughly which of the three eligibility routes you expect to qualify under, income, postcode or benefit, so you can answer the online questionnaire quickly.
• Have your National Insurance number and details of anyone else in the household to hand, since the benefits and income routes both ask for household-level detail, not just your own.
• Be ready for a home visit. The survey that decides your actual package, insulation, heat pump, solar, or a combination, generally cannot be done without someone assessing the property in person.

Eligibility criteria, application steps and scheme status were checked directly against GOV.UK on 25 September 2026; the headline eligibility, council contact details and cost caps were re-checked on 28 October 2026. Local authority delivery, funding rounds and criteria are reviewed; confirm the current position with your council or on GOV.UK before applying.