Green Homes Grant for home energy improvements

The Green Homes Grant helped thousands of people make their homes more sustainable. Here’s how it worked.

What was the Green Homes Grant Scheme?

The Green Homes Grant was a £2 billion government package, which provided eligible homeowners and landlords grants worth thousands of pounds to make energy improvements to their homes. The aim was for people in England to help the planet and reduce CO2 emissions by making their homes as energy efficient as possible.

To get the grant, you had to:

  • Own your home, including long-leaseholders and shared ownership
  • Own your park home on a residential site, including traveller sites
  • Be a residential landlord in the private or social rented sector, including local authorities and housing associations

Newly built homes that hadn’t been occupied before did not qualify.

Who was eligible for the Green Homes Grant scheme?

Energy-efficient home improvements to your home were split into two categories: primary measures and secondary measures.

Based on their eligibility, people were given a grant voucher to install at least one primary measure before it could be used to cover the cost of any secondary measures. The funds for the secondary could not exceed the amount of the primary.

Costs covered by the voucher included labour, materials, and VAT.

How the Green Homes Grant scheme worked

The primary measures for energy efficiency were low-carbon heating and insulation.

With low-carbon heating the aim is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, you could switch to the below:

  • Air source heat pump
  • Ground source heat pump
  • Solar thermal (liquid-filled flat plate or evacuated tube collector)
  • Biomass boiler
  • Hybrid heat pump

With insulation you can cut your heating costs and save more, by switching to the below:

  • Solid wall insulation (internal or external)
  • Cavity wall insulation
  • Under-floor insulation (solid floor, suspended floor)
  • Loft insulation
  • Flat roof insulation
  • Pitched roof insulation
  • Room in roof insulation
  • Insulating a park home

The secondary measures were windows and doors, and heating controls and insulation.

To make your windows and doors more energy efficient, you could purchase additional products below at a cheaper cost:

  • Draught proofing
  • Double or triple glazing (where replacing single glazing)
  • Secondary glazing (in addition to single glazing)
  • Energy-efficient replacement doors (replacing single glazed or solid doors installed before 2002)

Heating controls and insulation helps monitor the amount used hence allows you to manage heating usage, you could get the below for more control on heating:

  • Hot water tank thermostat
  • Hot water tank insulation
  • Heating controls, such as appliance thermostats, smart-heating controls, zone controls, intelligent delayed start thermostat, thermostatic radiator valves

Amount of funding given for Green Homes Grant

The Green Home Grant voucher could cover two-thirds of the cost of your chosen energy home improvements, up to a maximum of £5,000. For example, if installing insulation costs £3,000 in total, you would’ve paid £1,000, and the government paid the remaining £2,000.

For anyone receiving income or disability benefits, the government would’ve covered the entire cost of the improvements, up to £10,000.

Is the Government Green Home grant still available now?

Unfortunately, it’s too late to apply for the Green Home Grant. The last date to apply was on 31 March 2021, and the last grant voucher had to be redeemed by 30 November 2021.

However, there are grants you could be eligible for, like the ECO scheme grant, which helps improves your home’s efficiency and save more on energy bills through your energy supplier. To find out about this grant and others, please visit our British Gas Grants Hub.