Grants and funding for improving your EPC score

There is genuine funding for EPC improvement work, but far less of it is a general entitlement than the headlines suggest, and several widely-quoted schemes have closed or are in their final phase. This page sets out what is actually available in 2026, exactly which supports are live law and which are proposal or end-phase, and where each one fits into a cheapest-points-first plan. The schemes themselves are listed in detail below; the sections here explain how to read them.

Two rules run through everything on this page. First, we mark status honestly: a scheme that is open and funded is described as such, a scheme that has closed is not dressed up as available, and anything reported after our information was last confirmed points you to gov.uk for the current position. Second, funding does not change the order of works, the cheap fabric and controls points still come first, both because they cost the least per point and because, for the biggest grant on this page, they are literally a precondition.

The one honest, dated reason to act this year: 0% VAT to 31 March 2027

The single most broadly useful support is not a grant at all. 0% VAT on the installation of qualifying energy-saving materials, insulation, heating controls, heat pumps, solar and battery storage among them, applies to residential accommodation in Great Britain until 31 March 2027, after which it reverts to the 5% reduced rate. This is live law (VAT Notice 708/6), it applies to landlords and homeowners alike, and it quietly cuts the cost of almost every measure on the cost page by the VAT margin.

It is also the site's one honest urgency device. There is no manufactured "limited-time offer" here, simply a real, dated window that closes on 31 March 2027. Sequencing your works to fall inside it, rather than waiting for the 2030 landlord rush, saves money on the same measures you would buy anyway. Confirm any specific measure's qualifying status on the gov.uk notice before you rely on it.

The biggest cash grant: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (£7,500)

For anyone considering low-carbon heating, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) pays £7,500 toward an air or ground source heat pump replacing fossil-fuel heating in England and Wales. Landlords are eligible. It is open and funded, the Warm Homes Plan allocates £2.687bn to it through 2029/30, and it funds the measure that most clearly satisfies the proposed future "heating system" metric in the reformed EPC.

Two conditions matter for planning. Installation must be by an MCS-certified installer, and the property needs a valid EPC with no outstanding loft or cavity wall insulation recommendations (unless those are technically unsuitable). In other words, the cheap insulation points are a grant precondition, not an optional extra, which is exactly the sequencing this site recommends anyway. A government announcement in 2026 introduced a temporary higher grant for oil and LPG-heated homes; treat £7,500 as the dependable figure and check the current uplift value on gov.uk, because scheme terms are periodically revised. The full picture is on the heat pump guide.

Household-eligibility schemes: ECO4, and what has closed

Some support is tied to the occupant's circumstances rather than the property, and this is where accuracy matters most because the landscape has shifted.

ECO4 (the Energy Company Obligation) funds insulation and heating measures, the exact fabric measures an EPC recommends, but only where the occupant qualifies through benefits or an assessed low income (via council ECO4 Flex), in bands D-G for owner-occupiers and E-G for rentals. It is not a general owner or landlord grant. It is also in its end phase: its original end date was 31 March 2026, and the Warm Homes Plan (gov.uk, updated 18 March 2026) reported that government consulted on a nine-month extension to 31 December 2026. Treat it as end-phase, check its current status on gov.uk before relying on it, and never present it as an open entitlement.

The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) was scheduled to close on 31 March 2026 and should be treated as closed legacy, we do not promise it. If you have seen it cited elsewhere, that guidance is out of date; check gov.uk for any successor. The wider insulation guide sets out which fabric measures these schemes could fund where a household qualifies.

The umbrella and the local route: the Warm Homes Plan

The government's umbrella programme is the Warm Homes Plan (gov.uk, updated March 2026): £15bn of public investment to upgrade up to 5 million homes, incorporating the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the council-delivered Warm Homes: Local Grant for low-income households in England, and further delivery routes planned from 2027/28. The Local Grant funds measures for eligible households rather than paying cash to owners, and availability is postcode- and eligibility-dependent, so the honest step is to check what is currently open for your address with your council and on gov.uk, rather than assuming a national figure applies to you.

The Warm Homes Plan doubles as a compliance citation: it restates the confirmed landlord requirement to reach EPC C by 1 October 2030 across two reformed metrics, with a continuing exemptions regime. That is confirmed government policy, not yet enacted law, confirmed on 21 January 2026 and delivered through secondary legislation reported as targeted for 2027, so plan against it now while treating the final exemption detail as unsettled.

What has no grant: the assessment itself

One thing on this journey has no grant, and it is worth saying plainly because it builds trust. The EPC assessment and the post-works re-assessment are paid professional services, there is no funding for them. A domestic re-assessment typically costs £45 to £120; a commercial one is priced on the building. It is the cheapest line in any improvement project and the only one that makes the rest count: until a fresh certificate is lodged on the national register, the improvements legally do not exist as far as letting agents, buyers, lenders and MEES enforcement are concerned. Budget for it as a certainty, not a hoped-for grant.

How the funding fits a cheapest-points-first plan

Read together, the funding landscape reinforces the same order of works the rest of this site recommends. The 0% VAT window makes every measure cheaper until 31 March 2027. The £7,500 heat-pump grant requires the cheap insulation points to be done first. The household-eligibility schemes fund fabric measures where an occupant qualifies. And none of them removes the need to sequence by cost per point, grants change the price of a measure, not its position in the queue.

The practical route is unchanged: find your current score and gap on the homepage, sequence the works cheapest-points-first using the cost guide, apply whatever funding your property and circumstances unlock, and re-assess when the work is done. For the measures grants touch most often, see the guides to insulation, heat pumps and solar and battery. Always confirm current scheme terms on gov.uk before you commit, funding rules in this sector are revised regularly, and the status above is dated for that reason.