UK Home Energy Grants in 2026: Every Scheme That's Actually Open

Home energy grants are real, but the landscape is fragmented and it moved sharply in 2026. ECO4 — for years the main route to fully funded heating and insulation — closed to new applications in March 2026. The Warm Homes Plan took its place, but it is delivered locally and the rules vary by council. The result is a patchwork that is easy to misread, and plenty of sites still describe schemes that have already shut.

This is the current position as of June 2026: what is open, what each scheme pays, who qualifies, and what has closed. Eligibility for the means-tested routes is often determined locally, so treat the figures below as the national framework and confirm the detail for a specific property with the delivering body.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) — up to £7,500

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is the clearest and most generous national grant still open. It pays a fixed £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, and is confirmed to run until 2028. It is not means-tested: it is available to most homeowners in England and Wales replacing a fossil-fuel heating system, regardless of income.

The grant is claimed by the installer, not the homeowner — the discount comes off the quote, and the installer must be MCS-certified. The property usually needs a valid EPC with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation, because a heat pump only performs in a reasonably well-insulated home.

The scheme does not cover gas boilers. Its purpose is to shift homes off fossil-fuel heating, so it funds heat pumps (and, in limited cases, biomass boilers in rural off-gas-grid properties).

Full detail, including the insulation prerequisites and how the £7,500 nets against a typical install, is in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme guide.

The Warm Homes Plan — up to £30,000 for whole-home upgrades

The Warm Homes Plan is the government’s umbrella programme for fuel-poverty and energy-efficiency upgrades, and it absorbs much of what ECO4 used to deliver. The headline figure of up to £30,000 covers whole-home retrofit — insulation, heating, sometimes solar — for eligible households.

The important caveat: this is a cap, not an entitlement, and eligibility is locally determined. The Warm Homes: Local Grant strand is delivered through councils, which set their own criteria within the national framework. Qualification typically rests on a combination of EPC band (lower-rated homes are prioritised), income or means-tested benefits, and whether the property is off the gas grid. Two households on the same street can get different answers.

Because delivery is council-led, the route to apply is usually a local energy advice service rather than a single national portal. The Warm Homes Plan guide sets out the four-route structure and how the eligibility checks work.

The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) — insulation, broader eligibility

GBIS is the insulation-focused scheme that sits alongside the wider fuel-poverty programmes, and it has a deliberately broader eligibility route than the income-tested grants. As well as the standard low-income criteria, it opens up to households in lower Council Tax bands (broadly A–D in England) living in homes with an EPC rating of D or below.

That Council Tax band route is what makes GBIS relevant to households who would not qualify for the means-tested schemes. It funds measures such as cavity wall and loft insulation — the least glamorous but highest-volume upgrades, and often the cheapest way to cut a heating bill.

The GBIS guide covers the eligibility routes and the measures funded.

ECO Flex — the local-authority discretion route

ECO Flex (formally LA Flex) is not a separate pot of money so much as a mechanism: it lets local authorities widen ECO eligibility beyond the standard benefits-based criteria, using local knowledge of which households are in or near fuel poverty. If a household narrowly misses the national means-test, the council’s flexible eligibility statement is the route worth checking.

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) — income, not a grant

The Smart Export Guarantee is not a grant and does not reduce an installation cost, but it belongs on any honest list of what is available, because it changes the economics of solar. Under SEG, licensed electricity suppliers above a certain size must pay households for the solar electricity they export back to the grid.

Rates are set by each supplier and they vary widely and change often, so it is worth comparing tariffs rather than assuming a fixed figure. What matters is the mechanism: a solar installation is no longer a one-way cost. Current tariff comparison and the solar economics sit on the solar panel grants page.

The EV chargepoint grant (OZEV) — up to £350, now targeted

The EV chargepoint grant continues to offer up to £350 towards a home charger, but its scope has narrowed. The general grant for homeowners with off-street parking ended in 2022. What remains is targeted: people who live in flats, and people who rent, can still claim, as can some landlords installing for tenants. For anyone in a flat or a rental, it is a straightforward £350 off.

What has closed

A scheme that has ended is worse than useless if a site still presents it as live, because it sends people chasing money that is not there. As of June 2026:

• ECO4 closed to new applications in March 2026. Its work is now delivered through the Warm Homes Plan and GBIS.
• The Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) has run its course as a distinct programme, with whole-home retrofit folded into Warm Homes.
• The Feed-in Tariff closed to new applicants back in 2019; the Smart Export Guarantee replaced it for solar export payments.

How to work out what a specific home qualifies for

Three pieces of information determine almost every grant decision: the property’s EPC rating (lower bands are prioritised), its Council Tax band (the GBIS broad route), and whether anyone in the household receives means-tested benefits. Off-gas-grid status matters too, because those homes are prioritised for heat-pump support.

The honest position is that no national calculator can give a guaranteed answer for the locally delivered schemes — the final decision rests with the council or the installer running the eligibility check. The fastest way to narrow it down is to start from a current EPC and the schemes above, then confirm with the delivering body.

Energy Pages is an independent information service, not an installer or a grant administrator. The figures here reflect published government policy as of June 2026 and are kept under review as schemes change. For any specific property, confirm the current position with gov.uk, the relevant local authority, or an MCS-certified installer.

Sources: gov.uk (Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Warm Homes Plan, Great British Insulation Scheme), Ofgem (Smart Export Guarantee, ECO), the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (chargepoint grant), and the Energy Saving Trust.