For more details, please download our Warm Homes: Local Grant Guidance or call us on 01695 553 920
Warm Homes: Local Grant
Sustainable Building Services is a full turnkey, energy efficiency solutions provider who can support a Local Authority in their delivery of the Warm Homes: Local Grant funding.
Our vast experience and proven capability mean we understand the parameters, processes and challenges, in targeting and delivering works to private households and landlords.
An opportunity to address fuel poverty
Announced by Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in September 2024, it details how the scheme can be delivered by local authorities in England. It will provide funding for energy efficiency retrofit measures and low-carbon heating in private households, both on and off the gas grid.
Key Dates
Delivery Window Open
1st April 2025
Delivery Window Duration
3 to 5 years
The support will be targeted at low-income private homeowners and at landlords who have tenants on low incomes and is available to properties with an EPC rating of D-G. In keeping with best practice, the funding can also be used to support improvements to a small proportion (10%) of ‘infill’ social housing properties.
Importantly, the Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme can potentially be utilised in combination with Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to support improvements to both privately-owned and social housing properties concurrently. This encourages a true area-based approach and has the potential to generate valuable economies of scale.
How SBS can help
We are one of the UKs largest contractors and have extensive experience managing DESNZ funded projects, delivering large-scale energy efficiency and decarbonisation schemes to MCS / PAS 2030 and 2035 standards.
As a partner, we can take responsibility and manage all or as many aspects of the customer journey as required, providing an end-to-end retrofit solution. This can include customer acquisition, retrofit advice, energy surveys (assessments), direct installation of measures, and customer/Local Authority/Warm Homes: Local Grant administration and reporting.
Our services include providing energy efficiency advice through our experienced and qualified retrofit specialists (to Level 3 Retrofit Advice Standards as a minimum). Our wider private sector team are qualified retrofit professionals, and include assessors, advisors, coordinators, and designers to provide energy efficiency and home improvement plans tailored to property, household and Local Grant criteria.
Warm Homes: Local Grant can be managed and delivered in conjunction with, or separately to, Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3, which SBS also have extensive experience in delivering. Read more about Wave 3
Warm Homes: Local Grant Guidance
Funding and Tenure
Where private homeowners meet the eligibility criteria, the grant will provide full funding for relevant retrofit measures and low-carbon heating upgrades.
It will also provide full funding for one eligible property per landlord, though any additional private rented properties will require a 50% cost contribution. Where a scheme includes infill properties, social housing landlords must likewise contribute 50% of the costs.
Cost Caps
Like previous schemes, the Warm Homes: Local Grant is subject to certain cost caps.
Energy performance upgrades
£15k per home
Low carbon heating
£15k per home
Cost caps can be averaged across a project and must be met by project closure
Energy performance upgrades include fabric-first measures including insulation, double glazing, replacement doors etc. They also include smart controls, battery storage and microgeneration systems such as solar PV. Eligible low carbon heating systems include heat pumps and storage heaters.
Eligibility – Household Income
DESNZ identifies three pathways through which households may be deemed eligible on the basis of income.
Pathway 1: Households which reside within Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Income Deciles (ID) 1-2 areas. (See DESNZ list of eligible postcodes.)
Pathway 2: Households which can demonstrate receipt of a specified means-tested benefit or that they are eligible via route 2 of ECO Flex.
Pathway 3: Households with an annual gross income below £36,000 or the ‘after housing costs’ threshold in line with DESNZ-published equivalisation tables.
Note that means-tested benefits include: Housing Benefit, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit (savings and guarantee), Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit, and Child Tax Credit.
Those that are not eligible can make use of our Home Hero package. It seeks to bridge the gap between grants, savings and the cost of green home improvements. It does so by sourcing appropriate funding, by providing access to specialist finance and by managing the delivery of installations on the homeowner’s / landlord’s behalf.
Eligibility – Properties and Measures
Properties must have an EPC rating within bands D to G to be eligible.
Park homes must have an equivalent level of energy performance.
The work should seek to bring properties up to EPC Band C or better.
Retrofit measures must be compatible with the PAS 2035:2023 framework and must be installed in accordance with the latest PAS 2030:2023 or MCS standards.
Installers must be Trustmark registered and PAS 2030:2023 certified for energy performance measures and/or MCS certified for low carbon heating measures.
Funding may be applied to any energy improvement or heating measures that are compatible with the latest Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) methodology.
Unlike some previous schemes, the funding is available regardless of the primary heating system.
Exclusions
New-build or self-built properties that have not previously been occupied.
Social housing properties (except for a maximum 10% infill).
Measures involving new fossil fuel heating systems.
In addition to our own experience and expertise, our clients can also take advantage of the skills and resources of our sister companies:
Retrofit service consultancy, consumer funding and fintech provider
Residential smart technology solutions
Decarbonisation products supplier
