Damp Proofing Grants: Who Qualifies

There is no single damp proofing grant

If you have gone looking for a damp proofing grant expecting a national scheme with an application form, there isn't one in England. Damp is not treated as a category of its own. It gets dealt with indirectly, through a handful of different routes, and which one applies to you depends less on how bad the damp is than on who you are, what tenure you hold and where you live.

That last part matters more than people expect. Two households with the same problem, one either side of a council boundary, can get completely different answers.

The three routes worth knowing about are council discretionary housing assistance, the Disabled Facilities Grant, and energy efficiency schemes. Damp from a failed roof or a bridged damp proof course is a repair problem. Damp caused by cold surfaces, poor heating and no ventilation is often an energy problem. Different teams handle them, sometimes in the same building, so it helps to work out which one you are dealing with before you pick up the phone.

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Council discretionary help

The Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance) Order 2002 gives councils a broad power to help people repair or improve their homes. They can offer grants, loans, materials, labour or advice, and attach conditions they think reasonable. The word to hold onto is power. It is not a duty, so a council can decide how much to do and can pause a scheme when the budget runs out. Plenty have.

Where a scheme does exist, it is usually published as a housing assistance policy. Search your council's name plus "housing assistance policy" and you should find the document setting out what is on offer, who can apply and how the money is allocated. Some councils run home repair or handyperson schemes that cover damp work. Some limit help to serious problems such as category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, which damp and mould can be. Others offer equity loans repayable when the property is sold, rather than grants at all.

Common threads across most schemes:

• You own and live in the property, or in some areas you are a private tenant and the landlord agrees
• Your income is low, or you receive a means tested benefit such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit
• The property is your only or main home
• The work is genuinely needed rather than cosmetic
• You may need to have lived there for a minimum period, and a charge may be registered against the property

Older and disabled occupants tend to be prioritised, partly because damp and cold carry more health risk for them and partly because councils take referrals from NHS and social care staff.

Outside the council, home improvement agencies (often called Care and Repair) help older and disabled homeowners organise repairs and find funding. Charitable grants exist too, usually tied to a particular occupation, regiment, condition or area. Turn2us runs a searchable database of them, and Citizens Advice can help you work out what you might be eligible for.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Disabled Facilities Grant and energy schemes

The Disabled Facilities Grant is mandatory rather than discretionary, which makes it the strongest of the three routes if you qualify. Your council administers it and an occupational therapist assesses the need. Its purpose is to make a home suitable for a disabled occupant, so damp only comes into it where the two are connected: where damp makes a ground floor room unusable for someone who cannot manage stairs, say, or where the work forms part of a wider adaptation. It is means tested for adults, but not for work for a disabled child. Contact your council's home adaptations or housing team to start. GOV.UK sets out the basics.

Energy schemes are the other route. Where the damp is really a symptom of cold, uninsulated walls or inadequate heating, insulation and heating measures may be available. This funding changes name and shape often, so check the current position on GOV.UK rather than trusting an old article. Eligibility usually depends on the benefits you receive, household income or the property's EPC rating, and some schemes are run through the council rather than applied for directly. One practical point: installers will normally not insulate a wall with active damp in it, so the remedial work often has to happen first.

If you rent

Renting changes the question. Your route is not a grant. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 your landlord must keep the structure and exterior in repair, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires the property to be free from serious hazards, damp and mould included. Report it in writing and keep a copy. If nothing happens, contact your council's environmental health team, who can inspect and serve notice on the landlord.

Social housing tenants should use the landlord's complaints process and then the Housing Ombudsman. Awaab's Law, named after Awaab Ishak, the two year old who died after prolonged exposure to mould in a Rochdale flat, sets fixed timescales for social landlords to investigate and fix damp and mould. It comes from the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 and is being brought in in stages, so check where it has got to.

For figures, deadlines and current scheme names, go to GOV.UK and your own council. Those change far more often than the principles do.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Home Repair and Damp Grant Checker lets you check which grants, schemes and legal duties might cover damp, heating, insulation or repairs in your home. Try it now →