Free Boiler Grant
100% funded under ECO4.

ECO4 is paid for by energy suppliers and mostly helps low income homes with a full package of upgrades, like insulation plus a new heating system. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a flat grant, up to £7,500, for a heat pump or biomass boiler, and it does not check your income. Warm Homes: Local Grant is run through your local council in England and is aimed at low income households too. So the main difference is who pays for it and whether your income matters.

You usually cannot use two public grants to pay for the exact same job, so the Boiler Upgrade Scheme will not stack with another public grant for the same heat pump. But you can still get the Boiler Upgrade Scheme if you already had funding for something separate, like insulation. ECO4 and Warm Homes are different schemes, so it is worth checking both, since being turned down by one does not mean you fail the other.

Private tenants can apply for ECO4, but you will need your landlord's written permission first, and eligibility is assessed on the tenant's circumstances rather than the landlord's. Warm Homes: Local Grant also allows privately rented homes with landlord consent. If you live in social housing, neither route applies to you — councils and housing associations use the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund instead. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is claimed by the property owner, so a private tenant cannot apply alone, but a private landlord can apply for their own rental property. Social housing landlords are not eligible for it.

Most of these schemes look at your Energy Performance Certificate. ECO4 usually needs a D rating or lower, and Warm Homes: Local Grant accepts D, E, F or G. If you are not sure of your current rating, get it checked again, because an old certificate might say your home is better than it really is now, and that could wrongly rule you out.

Warm Homes: Local Grant has a household income threshold of £36,000 a year, and it is a hard cut-off with no taper. However, income is only one of three routes in. You can also qualify if your home sits in an eligible postcode area, based on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation income deciles 1 and 2, or if someone in your household receives certain qualifying benefits. Either of those routes can get you in even if your income is above £36,000. ECO4 mainly helps people on means-tested benefits, but ECO4 Flex opens a further route for people without those benefits who have a low income or a health condition made worse by a cold home. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme has no income rule at all, so higher earners can still use it.

It depends on the scheme. Under ECO4 there is normally no upfront cost and no contribution from the household, though on the ECO4 Flex route a landlord may be asked to contribute directly to the installer, and the tenant should never be out of pocket. Warm Homes: Local Grant is delivered by your council at no cost to eligible households. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme works differently — it is a fixed discount, not a full payment. The grant is taken straight off your installer's invoice and you pay the rest, so with a typical air source heat pump installation costing around £12,000 and a £7,500 grant, you would still fund the balance yourself. It also only covers the heat pump itself, so extras like new radiators, a hot water cylinder or upgraded pipework are not included.

These schemes are real, but scammers do try to copy them, and some councils have warned people about fake contractors. A real scheme will never ask you to pay a fee to unlock or guarantee your grant. Be careful of cold callers and anyone pressuring you to sign on the spot. Always apply through your council's website, GOV.UK, or a properly certified installer, and check they are TrustMark or MCS registered before letting them into your home.

For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, your installer applies for the grant voucher, and once you get it, there is a set time limit to finish the job and claim the money. For ECO4 and Warm Homes, you usually start with an online eligibility check, then a home survey if you qualify, then a booked installation date. Because ECO4 often includes insulation work too, it can take longer than a simple boiler swap, so expect several weeks at least from your first enquiry to any actual work starting.

ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026, but that is the deadline for completed work, not for enquiries. Applications typically take somewhere between ten and eighteen weeks to move through eligibility checks, a survey and installation, and insulation work adds time on top of that. Working back from the deadline, anyone starting a fresh ECO4 application much beyond early autumn 2026 is cutting it fine. If ECO4 looks like the right route for you, it is worth starting the check now rather than waiting, and if the timing no longer works, Warm Homes: Local Grant runs until March 2028.

People do get turned down even when they think they clearly qualify, sometimes because of ownership paperwork, an EPC that does not meet the rules, or a council deciding a very expensive property is not the best use of limited funds. If this happens to you, ask for the exact reason in writing rather than accepting a vague answer. Most councils and scheme providers have an appeals process, so it is worth using it, especially if the issue is something simple like missing documents.

Under ECO4, yes, in most cases. It follows a fabric first approach, meaning insulation usually needs to be sorted before, or at the same time as, a new heating system, so you often cannot skip straight to just a boiler swap. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is different, since it only funds the heat pump or biomass boiler itself and does not require insulation work first, though your installer will still check your home is suitable.

Not really, no. These are grant schemes with an application and usually a survey stage, so they are not built for same day emergencies. If your heating has stopped working right now, contact your energy supplier first, since some offer emergency help for vulnerable customers, or check what your local council offers for urgent situations. Once things are stable again, it is still worth applying to ECO4, Warm Homes or the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for a proper long term fix.