Every UK energy grant and whether it is open today
Most are open; the Great British Insulation Scheme and HUG2 have closed. The £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme is funded to 2030, ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026 and 0% VAT ends on 31 March 2027.
Where Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants have gone, council by council: heat pumps by council.
| Scheme | Where | What you can get | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boiler Upgrade Scheme | England and Wales | £7,500 heat pump, £9,000 off grid oil or LPG until 31 March 2027, £5,000 biomass, £2,500 air to air | Open, funded to 2030 |
| ECO4 | England, Scotland, Wales | Free or part funded insulation and heating | Closes 31 December 2026 |
| Warm Homes: Local Grant | England | Insulation, solar and low carbon heating via your council | Open through councils, delivery to 31 March 2028 |
| Warm Home Discount | England, Scotland, Wales | £150 off your electricity bill | Reopens October 2026 |
| Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan | Scotland | £7,500 heat pump grant plus an optional £7,500 interest free loan | Open, first come, first served |
| Warmer Homes Scotland | Scotland | Funded heating and insulation for households in fuel poverty | Open |
| Warm Homes Nest | Wales | Free heating and insulation package | Open |
| Affordable Warmth Scheme | Northern Ireland | Up to £7,500, or £10,000 where solid wall insulation is needed | Open |
| VAT on energy saving materials | UK | 0% VAT on the installed price | Zero rate ends 31 March 2027 |
| Great British Insulation Scheme | England, Scotland, Wales | Insulation | Closed, ended 31 March 2026 |
| Home Upgrade Grant (HUG2) | England | Off grid home upgrades | Closed, March 2025 |
Read the detail
Grant pages go stale faster than almost anything else on the web, and two of the schemes most often written about as live closed months ago. This is the position on 25 September 2026, checked against GOV.UK, Ofgem and the devolved administrations.
The data behind this table
Sources: GOV.UK Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Ofgem ECO, DESNZ Warm Homes: Local Grant policy guidance, July 2026, Ofgem Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Home Energy Scotland: Warmer Homes Scotland, GOV.UK Warm Home Discount, Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan, mygov.scot, GOV.WALES Nest, NI Housing Executive, VAT Notice 708/6.
What this checker cannot tell you
No web page can confirm a grant. ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant are rationed: your supplier or council decides who gets treated, funding runs out, and a surveyor can rule your property out after a visit. The Warm Homes: Local Grant also depends on your council taking the funding, though 271 councils did across 74 projects, over 97% of eligible councils in England, so most areas are covered.
So treat a result here as a shortlist, not a decision. The one place where a yes here is close to a real yes is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, because it has no income test, no benefits test and no queue: if you own the property and are replacing fossil fuel or electric heating, your installer applies and the grant comes off the quote.
The four things that decide your answer
Your nation, benefits or income, EPC band and whether you own the home. Nation rules out the most people: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is England and Wales only, and the Warm Homes: Local Grant England only.
Read the detail
1. Which nation your home is in
This is the question most grant pages skip and it eliminates more people than any other. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme runs in England and Wales only. ECO4 is a Great Britain scheme, so it does not reach Northern Ireland. The Warm Homes: Local Grant is England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own equivalents with their own rules and their own numbers.
2. Benefits, or income instead
For owners and private tenants, ECO4 works off a benefits list: Universal Credit, Pension Guarantee Credit, Pension Savings Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Child Benefit and Housing Benefit. Child Benefit only counts for ECO4 below a household income limit: £19,900 to £34,500 for a single parent and £27,500 to £42,000 for a couple, rising with the number of children. Social housing rated E to G qualifies on the property alone. The Warm Homes: Local Grant uses a shorter list and adds two routes that need no benefit at all, an income route below £36,000 a year gross and a postcode route for homes in the two most deprived income deciles. Councils can also refer some households who claim nothing into ECO4 through flexible eligibility, most often where gross household income is below £31,000.
3. Your EPC band
For ECO4, an owner-occupied home needs a rating of D, E, F or G, while a privately rented or social home needs E, F or G. The Warm Homes: Local Grant needs D to G and rules out A to C in all circumstances. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the exception: since 28 April 2026 a valid EPC is no longer required to apply, though the certificate number is still recorded where one exists.
4. Whether you own the place
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme needs you to own the property, and that includes second homes, holiday homes and homes you rent out, but not social housing. ECO4 reaches private tenants and social tenants as well as owners. The Warm Homes: Local Grant covers owner occupiers and the private rented sector but not social housing, beyond a small in-fill allowance.
Scheme by scheme
£7,500 for a heat pump under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, or £9,000 for off grid oil or LPG homes until 31 March 2027. If you qualify for ECO4, chase it first: measures must be installed by 31 December 2026.
Read the detail
Boiler Upgrade Scheme
Pays £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, £5,000 towards a biomass boiler in a rural off grid property, and £2,500 towards an air-to-air heat pump in a residential property. From 21 July 2026 until 31 March 2027 there is an extra £1,500 on the heat pump grants if your property is heated by oil or LPG and has no mains gas connection, which takes it to £9,000. One grant per property, and the new system has to replace fossil fuel or electric heating. Your MCS certified installer applies, and once the voucher is issued the installation has to be finished within 3 months, or 6 months for a ground source heat pump. You cannot use it for a hybrid system, or to replace a heating system that is already low carbon. The Warm Homes Plan funds the scheme with £2.7 billion from 2025/26 to 2029/30, including £400 million for 2026 to 2027. Full guide to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, or work out your cost after the grant.
ECO4, closing on 31 December 2026
The Energy Company Obligation makes large energy suppliers fund insulation, heating repairs and first-time central heating for low income and fuel poor households. The government confirmed in January 2026 that ECO4 runs to 31 December 2026, a nine-month extension, and the Warm Homes Plan brings supplier obligations to a close, so there will be no successor. Measures have to be installed before the deadline, not merely applied for, so do not leave it late. Social housing rated E to G qualifies without a benefit test, through the landlord. If you think you qualify, this is the scheme to chase first. Contact your energy supplier or your council. How ECO4 works and how to get free loft insulation through it.
Warm Homes: Local Grant
England only, delivered by councils from April 2025 to March 2028 with £500 million behind it. Your household qualifies through one of three routes: an eligible postcode in Indices of Multiple Deprivation income deciles 1 to 2, receipt of a listed means-tested benefit, or gross household income below £36,000 (or an after housing costs threshold that depends on who lives with you). The property must be an existing home rated D to G, owner occupied or privately rented. Park homes count. DESNZ sets twin cost caps of £16,600 for energy performance measures and £16,600 for low carbon heating. These are per-home caps that a council is allowed to average across its whole project, so they are not an amount any one household is entitled to. Apply through GOV.UK or your council's website.
Warm Home Discount
A flat £150 off your winter electricity bill, applied by your supplier rather than paid to you, for around six million households. The scheme is between years and reopens in October 2026. For winter 2026 to 2027 in England and Wales you qualify if, on 23 August 2026, your supplier was part of the scheme, your name or your partner's was on the electricity bill, and you were getting Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit. Scotland has its own qualifying rules. More on the Warm Home Discount.
Scotland: two separate routes
The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan has no benefits test at all. If you own the home you live in, you can get a grant of up to £7,500 towards a heat pump plus an optional interest free loan of up to £7,500, with a further £1,500 rural uplift for rural and island homes. Insulation grants cover up to 75% of the combined cost of measures, to a maximum grant of £7,500. Funding is first come, first served within each financial year. Separately, Warmer Homes Scotland funds heating and insulation for homeowners and private tenants struggling to heat their home, and the Scottish Government usually meets all the costs. Someone in the household must get one of its passport benefits (which include Universal Credit, Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, Council Tax Reduction, Scottish Child Payment and several disability benefits), be terminally ill, or be over 75 with no working heating. The home must be in council tax band A to G at 230 square metres or less, and you need to have lived there six months.
Wales: Warm Homes Nest
Free improvements for people who own or privately rent in Wales, who either get a means-tested benefit or are on a low income, and whose home is rated 54 (band E) or below. That threshold loosens to 68 (band D) or below where someone in the household has an eligible health condition such as a respiratory or circulatory condition, and a band D home without one goes on a reserve list. The low income thresholds depend on who lives with you and are measured after rent or mortgage payments. Nest is funded by the Welsh Government, so it is not tied to the ECO4 deadline.
Northern Ireland: Affordable Warmth Scheme
Run by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive for homeowners and private tenants, where total annual gross household income is under £23,000. The grant is worth up to £7,500, rising to £10,000 where solid wall insulation is needed. It is not open to social housing tenants, and a private landlord has to pay 50% of the cost. Apply through NI Energy Advice on 0800 111 44 55.
0% VAT on energy saving materials
Not a grant, but it behaves like one. Heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and other energy saving materials installed in residential property carry a zero rate of VAT until 31 March 2027, after which they return to the 5% reduced rate. Your installer applies it, so there is nothing to claim. Calculate your solar panel savings with the zero rate in place.
Two schemes that have closed
The Great British Insulation Scheme ran from April 2023 to 31 March 2026 and delivered 139,100 measures to 100,900 households. The eligibility service on GOV.UK is shut. The Home Upgrade Grant, phase 2, closed in March 2025 and was replaced by the Warm Homes: Local Grant from April 2025. If a company is still advertising either one to you, that is a reason to be careful about the rest of what they are telling you.
ECO4 eligibility check
You qualify if someone in the home claims a qualifying benefit and the home is rated D to G if you own it, or E to G if you rent privately. Social housing rated E to G qualifies on the property alone, and councils can refer others through ECO4 Flex. The work must be installed by 31 December 2026.
| Your situation | EPC band needed | What else you need | How to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own your home | D, E, F or G | Someone in the home claims a qualifying benefit | Your council or a participating energy supplier |
| You rent privately | E, F or G | A qualifying benefit, and your landlord's permission for the work | Ask your landlord, then your council or a participating supplier |
| You rent from a council or housing association | E, F or G | Nothing: the property qualifies on its own | Your council or housing association arranges it |
| You claim no qualifying benefit | D to G if you own, E to G if you rent | A council referral through ECO4 Flex, most often a gross household income below £31,000 | Ask your council's energy or housing team |
Read the detail
The data behind this table
The rules as set out in our ECO4 guide, from Ofgem's ECO4 guidance. The low income proxy route under ECO4 Flex needs a rating of E to G for owners too, and Flex covers private housing only. ECO4 is a Great Britain scheme, so it does not reach Northern Ireland.
The qualifying benefits are Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Child Benefit. Child Benefit only counts below a household income limit: £19,900 to £34,500 for a single parent and £27,500 to £42,000 for a couple, rising with the number of children.
You can look up your EPC band on the GOV.UK EPC register, and the checker above asks for it. A genuine ECO4 offer never asks for an upfront fee. Because the measures have to be installed by 31 December 2026, not just approved, it is worth starting in the autumn rather than the winter. Read the full ECO4 guide for what the scheme covers and how the survey works.
What comes after ECO4
The Warm Homes Plan, worth £15 billion. For a low income household in England, the practical route after ECO4 closes is the Warm Homes: Local Grant through the council; a single low income scheme is planned from 2027/28.
Read the detail
The Warm Homes Plan, published on 21 January 2026, commits £15 billion of public investment over this Parliament, covering 2025/26 to 2029/30. The government expects it to reach up to 5 million homes and to lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is funded within it to 2030, and the government intends to merge the Warm Homes: Local Grant and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund into a single low income scheme from 2027/28, while existing Local Grant projects can deliver until 31 March 2028. For the three months between ECO4 closing and that consolidation, the practical route for a low income household in England is the Warm Homes: Local Grant through the council. What the Warm Homes Plan actually commits to.
Frequently asked questions
Am I eligible for a government energy grant?
It comes down to four things: which UK nation your home is in, whether anyone in the household claims a means-tested benefit or has a low income, your EPC band, and whether you own the property. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the outlier, with no income test and no benefits test, so any owner in England or Wales replacing fossil fuel or electric heating can apply. ECO4 tests benefits for owners and private tenants, though social housing rated E to G qualifies on the property alone. The Warm Homes: Local Grant, Warm Homes Nest and the Affordable Warmth Scheme test income or benefits as well as the property.
Is ECO4 still available in 2026?
Yes, but not for long. The government confirmed in January 2026 that ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026, a nine-month extension, and the Warm Homes Plan brings supplier obligations to a close, so there will be no successor. Measures have to be installed before that date, not just applied for, so do not leave it late.
Is there a grant for a new boiler in the UK?
There is no national grant for swapping a working gas boiler for another gas boiler. ECO4 can fund a boiler repair or replacement until 31 December 2026 for households on qualifying benefits in a home they own rated D to G, or rent privately rated E to G. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards a heat pump instead, or £9,000 until 31 March 2027 if your home runs on oil or LPG with no mains gas connection. In Scotland, Warmer Homes Scotland can fit a new boiler for eligible households, and in Northern Ireland the Affordable Warmth Scheme can replace a boiler at least 15 years old for some households on under £23,000.
Which energy grants can I get if I do not claim benefits?
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales and the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan in Scotland have no benefits test. The Warm Homes: Local Grant in England has an income route for households under £36,000 a year and a postcode route for homes in the two most deprived income deciles, and councils can refer households on under £31,000 into ECO4. Zero rate VAT on energy saving materials applies to everyone until 31 March 2027.