Two kinds of help, and one warning
Government support comes in two families: money toward improving the house (heat pumps, insulation, sometimes solar) and money off the bills (winter discounts and payments). Which nation you live in matters as much as your income — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run their own versions, and they differ more than most articles admit.
The warning: schemes change names, budgets run out mid-year, and eligibility rules shift with each fiscal event. Everything below is checked as of August 2026, but treat this page as the map, not the contract — confirm on the official page before building a grant into your plans. And never let free money reverse the fabric-first order: a subsidised heat pump in an uninsulated house is still heating the street.
The quick answer
| Scheme | Where | What it’s worth | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boiler Upgrade Scheme | England & Wales | £7,500 off a heat pump (£9,000 for oil/LPG homes to March 2027) | Any owner replacing fossil-fuel or direct electric heating |
| Home Energy Scotland grant & loan | Scotland | Up to £7,500 grant + £7,500 interest-free loan for clean heating; up to £7,500 toward insulation; +£1,500 rural uplift | Homeowners — not means-tested |
| ECO4 | Great Britain | Insulation and heating, often fully funded — ends December 2026 | Lower-income households, homes with poor EPCs |
| Warm Homes: Local Grant | England | Insulation, heat pumps and solar, arranged and paid for by your council | Household income ≤ £36,000 (or benefits / eligible postcode), EPC D–G |
| Warmer Homes Scotland | Scotland | Fully funded improvements, often £10,000+ | Households on benefits or struggling with bills |
| Nest (Warm Homes) | Wales | Free insulation, heating and sometimes solar | Means-tested benefits or a qualifying health condition, in an inefficient home |
| Affordable Warmth / NISEP | Northern Ireland | Up to £7,500 (£10,000 where solid-wall insulation is needed) | Household income under ~£23,000; NISEP is broader but first-come |
| Warm Home Discount | Great Britain | £150 off the winter electricity bill | Means-tested benefits — automatic in England & Wales |
If you want a heat pump
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme takes £7,500 off an air-source or ground-source heat pump in England and Wales, and it’s funded through to 2028. You never handle the money: your MCS-certified installer claims it and deducts it from the quote — so ask explicitly how the grant is reflected in the price, because it should reduce your cost, not pad theirs. You need a valid EPC (under ten years old); the old rule blocking homes with outstanding loft or cavity recommendations was dropped in 2024. New for this year: from July 2026 to March 2027, homes heated by oil or LPG with no mains gas connection get an uplifted £9,000 — and off-gas homes were already the ones where heat pump payback is fastest, so if that’s you, this is the moment to price one up.
In Scotland the equivalent is the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan: up to £7,500 as a grant plus up to £7,500 more as an interest-free loan for clean heating, with a £1,500 rural and island uplift — and unlike most schemes it isn’t means-tested. Northern Ireland has no Boiler Upgrade equivalent; heat pump support there comes patchily through NISEP and the Affordable Warmth Scheme below.
If you need insulation or a whole-house upgrade
- ECO4 (Great Britain) makes energy suppliers fund insulation and heating upgrades for lower-income households and homes with poor EPC ratings — often at no cost to you. After a nine-month extension it now ends in December 2026, so if you might qualify, ask your energy supplier to check your eligibility now, not next spring. (Its sibling, the Great British Insulation Scheme, closed in March 2026 — ignore articles still promoting it.)
- Warm Homes: Local Grant (England) is the successor route under the Warm Homes Plan: your council arranges and pays for insulation, heat pumps, smart controls and solar for owner-occupied (and some rented) homes rated EPC D–G where household income is £36,000 or less — or you’re on qualifying benefits or in an eligible postcode. Apply through gov.uk’s “Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant” service; it runs to 2028, but councils’ allocations are finite.
- Warmer Homes Scotland fully funds packages of heating and insulation — commonly £10,000+ of work — for households on benefits or otherwise struggling to stay warm. Start with a call to Home Energy Scotland, who also give free impartial advice to everyone, eligible or not.
- Nest (Wales) — the Welsh Government’s Warm Homes programme — provides free insulation, heating replacements and sometimes solar to households on means-tested benefits, or with a chronic health condition and a low income, living in inefficient homes. Its free advice line is open to anyone in Wales.
- Northern Ireland: the Affordable Warmth Scheme (via your council and the Housing Executive) offers up to £7,500 — up to £10,000 where solid-wall insulation is needed — for households with income under roughly £23,000. NISEP funds insulation for a wider group through approved scheme managers, but each year’s pot is first-come, so apply early in the scheme year.
- Renting? Landlords face minimum-efficiency rules and most of the schemes above have private-tenant routes (with landlord consent). Asking costs nothing, and a tenant’s benefits can unlock funding the landlord can’t get alone.
Money off the bills
These don’t improve the house — they just soften winter:
- Warm Home Discount: £150 credited to your electricity account between October and March. In England and Wales it’s automatic if you (or your partner) were on a qualifying means-tested benefit in late August — the 2025 expansion scrapped the old “high cost to heat” test, roughly doubling who gets it. In Scotland the automatic route is narrower (Pension Credit Guarantee Credit); others must apply through their supplier, and the broader-group pots run out.
- Winter Fuel Payment: £200–£300 per pensioner household, paid automatically — but since winter 2025 it’s clawed back through the tax system where an individual’s income is over £35,000.
- Cold weather help: the Cold Weather Payment pays £25 per seven-day freeze to those on qualifying benefits in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland replaced it with a flat annual Winter Heating Payment of around £60, paid regardless of the weather.
- If you’re in arrears: several suppliers run hardship funds (the British Gas Energy Trust accepts applications from other suppliers’ customers), and asking your supplier for a payment plan is a statutory right, not a favour.
Help everyone gets, income aside
Two quiet ones worth knowing: VAT on energy-saving materials is 0% until March 2027 — insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries all qualify, which knocks a meaningful slice off any quote. And if you fit solar, the Smart Export Guarantee pays you for exported electricity — not a grant, but real money the solar guide shows how to maximise.
Checking eligibility without getting scammed
The official starting points are gov.uk’s “Improve your home’s energy efficiency” service (England and Wales), Home Energy Scotland, Nest in Wales and NI Energy Advice — each is free and will tell you every scheme you qualify for. The red flags are constant across every scheme era: legitimate grants are claimed by the installer or council, never paid to you — anyone asking for an upfront “application” or “survey” fee to unlock a grant is a scammer; cold callers offering “government-backed free insulation” deserve the same scepticism as any doorstep sales pitch; and grant-funded work still needs the basics — three quotes, MCS or TrustMark certification, and a written price showing exactly where the grant lands.
The one-line summary
Match your nation and situation to the table above, check eligibility through the official advice service (free, and they’ll know what’s live), move before ECO4 closes in December 2026 if you might qualify — and remember that a grant changes what you pay, never the fabric-first order you should spend in.
Related guides & tools
- Home Energy 101 — the spending order that grants should accelerate, not scramble
- Insulation and draught-proofing — what the insulation schemes actually fund, and the pecking order by payback
- Heat pumps vs gas boilers — whether the £7,500 (or £9,000) is worth claiming at all
- EPC ratings — the poor band that unlocks half the schemes on this page
- Solar & Battery ROI Simulator — run the numbers with the 0% VAT and export payments included
Last reviewed: August 2026.