Home energy grants in the UK are a moving target. Schemes open, close, get extended at short notice and change their eligibility rules mid-flight, and a great deal of what you will find online describes versions that no longer exist. Several sites are still inviting applications to schemes that shut months ago.
This page lists what is actually available now, what is closing, and what has already gone. Every scheme below carries a status and a date. We are a publisher, not an installer, so we have no reason to tell you that you qualify when you do not.
Open now
Boiler Upgrade Scheme
Status: open, runs to 2030
- Worth: £7,500, or £9,000 for off-grid homes replacing oil or LPG until 31 March 2027
- Covers: air source and ground source heat pumps, biomass boilers in rural properties
- Where: England and Wales
- Who: any homeowner, no income test, and no EPC requirement since April 2026
The main grant for replacing fossil fuel heating. Your installer claims it and deducts it from your quote. Read our guides to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and to the £9,000 uplift for oil and LPG homes, which has a disqualifier that catches a lot of rural properties.
Warm Homes: Local Grant
Status: open, funded to March 2028
- Worth: varies by council
- Covers: insulation and heating upgrades
- Where: England
- Who: lower-income households in homes rated EPC D to G
The government’s replacement for the supplier-obligation model, funded directly rather than through energy bills and delivered by local councils. Because delivery is devolved, what is on offer genuinely varies by area, which is unusual among UK energy schemes. Start with your own council’s website.
Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan
Status: open
- Worth: up to £7,500 grant, £9,000 with the rural uplift, plus an interest-free loan of up to £7,500
- Covers: heat pumps, insulation, solar and battery storage
- Where: Scotland
- Who: homeowners, no income test for the main grant
For most applicants this is a more generous package than the English equivalent, and it works differently: you apply yourself rather than your installer doing it, and the funding is subject to the annual budget. Scotland is not covered by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Our full guide to heat pump grants in Scotland covers the rural uplift, the loan and the requirement England dropped but Scotland kept.
Warm Homes Nest
Status: open
- Worth: up to 100% of costs for eligible households
- Covers: insulation, heating improvements, renewable energy
- Where: Wales
- Who: lower-income households, income and property criteria apply
Welsh households can also use the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which applies across England and Wales, so Wales has two routes where most nations have one. They cannot be used for the same installation, which makes the order you approach them in matter. Our full guide to heat pump grants in Wales covers both and explains why Nest is worth checking first.
Northern Ireland
Energy efficiency policy is devolved, and Northern Ireland sits outside every scheme listed above. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme, ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme all cover Great Britain only. If a website offers you a £7,500 heat pump grant or ECO4 funding at a Northern Ireland address, it is using the wrong country’s rules.
There is currently no direct equivalent to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme in Northern Ireland: no capital grant open to any homeowner regardless of income. The two funded routes are both narrower than that.
Affordable Warmth Scheme
Status: open, but being replaced
- Worth: a package of insulation and heating measures, fully funded
- Covers: insulation, heating measures, and boiler replacement or central heating conversion in some cases
- Where: Northern Ireland
- Who: gross household income under £23,000, and you either own and occupy the property as your main home or rent privately
Applications go to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which has delivered the scheme on its own since 2023. Local councils no longer administer it, and a good deal of older guidance still says they do. Do not start any work until you have written confirmation that you qualify.
The Department for Communities launched a Warm Healthy Homes Strategy in February 2026, and its delivery scheme, the Warm Healthy Homes Fund, is expected to replace Affordable Warmth from around April 2027. If you think you might qualify, the sensible move is to apply under the current scheme rather than wait for a successor whose criteria are not yet published.
NISEP
Status: open, annual scheme year
- Worth: varies by measure and by year
- Covers: a rotating list of energy efficiency measures, insulation prominent among them
- Where: Northern Ireland
- Who: varies, and a substantial share is reserved for vulnerable households
The Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme is funded by a levy on electricity bills and overseen by the Utility Regulator, which makes it the closest thing Northern Ireland has to ECO. Funding is allocated first come, first served within each scheme year, so timing matters. It is the usual route for households whose income sits above the Affordable Warmth threshold.
A caution on heat pumps specifically
Sources disagree on whether Affordable Warmth funds heat pumps. Some state plainly that it does not; others say heat pumps may be available depending on the assessment. We have not been able to resolve this from the Housing Executive’s own published material, so we are not going to assert either way.
If a heat pump is what you are after, ask the question directly during the assessment rather than assuming from a website, ours included.
The free NI Energy Advice Service, run by the Housing Executive, is the right starting point for any of this. It is reachable on 0800 111 4455 and can check your eligibility across both schemes.
One thing that does apply UK-wide: 0% VAT on heat pump installations until 31 March 2027. If you are self-funding in Northern Ireland, that is the only saving available to you, and it expires.
Closing
ECO4
Status: closes to new applications on 31 December 2026
- Worth: usually 100% of costs
- Covers: insulation, first-time central heating, heating systems, solar in some cases
- Where: England, Scotland and Wales
- Who: households on qualifying benefits, or referred by a council under LA Flex
Two things worth knowing. It was originally due to close on 31 March 2026 and was extended by nine months, so pages saying it has already closed are out of date. And the practical deadline is considerably earlier than the official one, because supplier funding tightens once obligations are met. Our full ECO4 guide covers both eligibility routes, including the one that works without any benefits at all.
Closed
Great British Insulation Scheme
Status: closed to new applications on 31 January 2026
GBIS qualified households by council tax band rather than by benefits, which made it the obvious route for people on modest incomes who did not claim anything. It ran until 31 March 2026 to complete work already approved, and has not been replaced as a standalone scheme.
It is still listed as available on a number of energy websites, some of which link to an application page. If you find one, it is out of date. The nearest equivalents now are the Warm Homes: Local Grant and the LA Flex route into ECO4.
Before you apply for anything
Three things are true of almost every scheme on this page, and knowing them saves a lot of wasted time.
- Most grants are installer-led. You do not apply yourself. A certified installer applies on your behalf and the grant comes off your quote. Anyone asking you to pay a fee to “apply” for a government grant is not offering you a government grant.
- You usually cannot stack public funding. Taking one grant towards a measure normally rules out another for the same work. Work funded through ECO4, for instance, is explicitly excluded from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
- Cold calls about energy grants are almost always a lead-generation exercise. Genuine schemes do not need to phone you. Go to the scheme, or your council, rather than letting it come to you.
Frequently asked questions
The questions below come up most often when people are working out which scheme applies to them.
Can I get a heat pump for free?
Through ECO4, sometimes yes, if you qualify on benefits or through LA Flex and the assessment supports it. Through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, no. That grant covers £7,500 of a job typically costing £8,000 to £15,000, so there is usually something left to pay.
Do I need an EPC?
For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, no, not since April 2026. For ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant, yes, and it needs to be rated D to G.
Can I combine grants?
Generally no for the same measure. Work funded through ECO is excluded from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and taking one public grant towards a measure normally rules out another.
Are grants available to renters?
For ECO4, yes, with the landlord’s written consent, and the tenant must meet the eligibility criteria. Social housing is excluded from the LA Flex route. For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the applicant is the property owner.
How long does it take?
For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the voucher is valid for three months from issue, six for ground source, and the process is driven by your installer’s schedule. For ECO4, industry estimates put the whole process at ten to eighteen weeks, which matters given the December deadline.
Will the Boiler Upgrade Scheme be extended?
It already has been. It now runs to 2030, with £400 million allocated for 2026/27, rising to £709 million by 2029/30. The £9,000 uplift for oil and LPG homes is separate and ends on 31 March 2027.
Last updated 15 September 2026. Scheme values, dates and eligibility verified against Ofgem and government guidance. Budget figures verified against the DESNZ Boiler Upgrade Scheme 2026 to 2030 Summary Business Case. Northern Ireland eligibility verified against the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s published criteria; the Affordable Warmth Scheme is due to be replaced from around April 2027 and successor criteria are not yet published. Grant rules change at short notice, so check the date above, and check devolved schemes with the administering body in your nation.