What replaces them

The Warm Homes Plan

Not a government service. UKSolars is an independent company. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the UK Government, DESNZ, Ofgem, MCS or any local authority. We do not administer any grant scheme, we cannot approve an application, and we never charge for anything a government provides free.

How we are paid. We are paid a fee by installers when we introduce a homeowner who asks for a quote. It does not change your price, and we are not paid more by one installer than another for the same job. In full.

Short answer

The Warm Homes Plan was published on 21 January 2026: £15bn to upgrade up to 5 million homes and lift up to 1 million households out of fuel poverty by 2030. It is already delivering through the Warm Homes Social Housing Fund and Warm Homes: Local Grant, which are to be integrated into a single low-income scheme from 2027/28.

Published
21 January 2026
Committed
£15bn
Target
Up to 5m homes by 2030
Status
Already delivering
By the UKSolars editorial team Updated 2026-09-02
Sources checked 2026-09-02 Warm Homes Plan: checked 2026-08-23 Warm Homes Fund consumer loans: checked 2026-08-23

The plan is already running

The Warm Homes Plan is not a future scheme waiting to open in January 2027. A great deal of content says so, and we said it ourselves until we read the source.

DESNZ’s own document describes delivery happening now, through the Warm Homes Social Housing Fund and Warm Homes: Local Grant, with those two integrated into a single low-income capital scheme from 2027/28 onwards. If you qualify, the thing to do is apply: not wait.

What the plan funds

Published 21 January 2026:

  • £15bn of public investment.
  • Upgrades to up to 5 million homes by 2030.
  • Lifting up to 1 million households out of fuel poverty by 2030.
  • Around £5bn for low-income and fuel-poor households to 2030, of which £4.4bn is direct capital grants.
  • An initial £600m from the Warm Homes Fund.

The official plan also allocates £4.422bn to low-income capital grants and describes a £5.3bn Warm Homes Fund across its financing measures. These programme totals are not the amount an individual household can claim.

Consumer loans

Every means-tested UK energy scheme before this one could only ever help households on qualifying benefits, which is most emphatically not most households. The Warm Homes Fund is the first serious attempt at the rest.

£1.7bn

Committed to new low- and zero-interest consumer loans, with a further £300m to lower the cost of those loans

DESNZ: Warm Homes Plan

The loans explicitly cover solar panels and batteries, on the reasoning that those “facilitate immediate electricity bill savings”, which is the right reasoning, because a loan against a measure that starts saving money immediately is a very different proposition from one against insulation that pays back slowly.

It is rolling out in phases, expanding over time, and fuller eligibility detail is still to be published. Funding is committed, but the full household application route is not yet available.

Solar specifically

Solar is not an afterthought in this Plan, which is a change from ECO4:

  • Low-income grant support covers “solar PV, batteries, cost effective insulation”.
  • The consumer loans cover “solar panels and batteries”.
  • New-build standards require “solar panels by default”: see the Future Homes Standard.
  • The Plan sets an ambition of up to 3 million more homes with solar by 2030.

That last figure is worth holding onto. There are roughly 2 million UK solar installations today, so the ambition is to more than double the installed base inside four years.

What this means for you, by situation

Act now

  • You are on a means-tested benefit or a low income with an EPC of D to G: Warm Homes: Local Grant is live and council-run.
  • You qualify for ECO4: it closes 31 December 2026 and the real deadline is earlier.
  • You are buying anyway: the 0% VAT rate runs to 31 March 2027 and needs no application.

Watch and wait

  • You are above the means-tested thresholds and want help with upfront cost: the Warm Homes Fund loans are aimed at you, and the detail is still coming.
  • You want to know your exact grant amount: grant levels per household are not published.
  • You are in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland: delivery is devolved and your route differs.

Why the naming causes so much confusion

Three different things share a name, and a lot of content treats them as one:

| Name | What it is | Status | | --- | --- | --- | | Warm Homes Plan | The £15bn programme overall | Published Jan 2026, delivering now | | Warm Homes: Local Grant | Council-run grants for low-income private homes | Live, England | | Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund | The social-landlord equivalent | Live | | Warm Homes Fund | The financing arm: the consumer loans | Phasing in |

If a page uses “Warm Homes Plan” and “Warm Homes: Local Grant” interchangeably, it has not read the source. They are a programme and one of its delivery schemes.

What we will do when this changes

Every figure above is tied to a DESNZ publication in the sources below, and the funding tracker carries a dated changelog. When the loan terms or the per-household grant levels are published, that entry will say what changed, on what date, and which document says so.

Common questions

When does the Warm Homes Plan start?
It has already started through the Warm Homes Social Housing Fund and Warm Homes: Local Grant. Those schemes are due to be integrated into a single low-income capital scheme from 2027/28. There is no separate January 2027 launch date.
Does the Warm Homes Plan pay for solar panels?
Yes, explicitly. Support for low-income households covers solar PV, batteries and cost-effective insulation, and the consumer loan element covers solar panels and batteries. The Plan sets an ambition of up to 3 million more homes with solar by 2030.
Do I have to be on a low income?
Not for all of it. The grant funding is aimed at low-income and fuel-poor households, but the Warm Homes Fund loan element is aimed more broadly: up to £1.7bn of low- and zero-interest consumer loans, with a further £300m committed to bringing the cost of those loans down. Fuller eligibility detail is still to be published.
Should I wait rather than applying to ECO4?
No, if you qualify for ECO4 now. ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026 and its practical deadline is months earlier, because measures must be installed and notified rather than merely applied for. Waiting costs you a scheme that exists.
What is the Warm Homes Fund?
The financing arm of the Plan. Up to £1.7bn of the facility goes to new low- and zero-interest consumer loans to help households meet the upfront cost of upgrades, with a further £300m to lower the cost of those loans. It is rolling out in phases and expanding over time.

Sources

Checked 2026-09-02. Rates, rules and eligibility can change. Confirm current terms before signing a contract or applying for funding.

Read next

ECO4 versus the Warm Homes Plan→

Compare the two routes and their eligibility rules.

Warm Homes: Local Grant→

The low-income route that is running today.

Every scheme, tracked→

With a changelog, so you can see what has moved.

Check whether you qualify

Answer six questions and see the result on screen. No email required.

Check your eligibility

Get grant updates

We will email you when a scheme, threshold or deadline changes.

Email me when a grant, export rate or rule on this site changes. Nothing else, and my address is never passed to anyone. We never sell your email or pass it to an installer. Unsubscribe at any time.