Home Improvement Grants: The Real List

Search for a government grant to fix up your house and you will find plenty of pages promising one, and very few that say what it actually is. So, plainly: there is no general home improvement grant in the UK. Nothing you can apply for to replace a kitchen, mend a roof, redo a dated bathroom or extend a house. That scheme does not exist.

What does exist is a set of narrower schemes tied to a particular purpose: adapting a home for a disabled person, making a home warmer and cheaper to heat, or repairing something that makes a house unsafe or unfit to live in. A couple are legal entitlements. Most are discretionary, which means the council or the scheme decides, and meeting the criteria does not guarantee you get anything.

Grants that do exist

The Disabled Facilities Grant is the main one, and the only home adaptation grant with a statutory basis. It is paid by your local council for work that lets a disabled person get in and out of their home and use it properly: ramps, level access showers, stairlifts, widened doorways, sometimes heating or lighting controls. An occupational therapist normally assesses what is needed first. For adults there is a means test; for work for a disabled child there generally is not. Amounts and rules differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so start at GOV.UK or your council rather than a third party site.

Beyond that, councils in England and Wales have powers to run their own housing assistance schemes, and what each offers varies enormously. Typical examples are small repair grants for dangerous conditions, empty property grants, help with home security for people at risk, or loans rather than grants. These are discretionary and budget limited. Some councils spend the money early in the financial year and close the scheme until the next one. The only reliable way to find out is to look up your council's housing assistance policy, or ask its private sector housing team.

There are also home improvement agencies, sometimes branded Care and Repair or a handyperson service, which help older and disabled homeowners organise and supervise work. They are not a source of money in themselves, but they know what local help exists, which is worth more than most search results.

After serious flooding, the government sometimes opens property flood resilience funding through councils. It is announced after specific events, runs for a limited window, and covers flood protection work rather than repairs generally.

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Energy and heating schemes

Most of what gets advertised as a "home improvement grant" is really an energy scheme. These are the ones with real money behind them, but they only pay for insulation, heating and related measures.

• The Energy Company Obligation, delivered by larger energy suppliers, covers insulation and heating improvements for households on certain benefits or in low income areas.
• The Great British Insulation Scheme covers insulation for a wider range of households, based partly on council tax band and property energy rating. It replaced nothing you may remember reading about years ago: the old Green Homes Grant closed some time back and is not coming back.
• The Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales puts money towards a heat pump or biomass boiler. You do not apply yourself. A certified installer applies on your behalf and takes the amount off your quote.
• Councils also deliver government funded warm homes schemes locally, usually aimed at homes with poor energy ratings and lower household incomes.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own, including Home Energy Scotland and Warmer Homes Scotland, Warm Homes Nest in Wales, and the Affordable Warmth Scheme and Sustainable Energy Programme in Northern Ireland.

Energy schemes get renamed, replaced and closed often enough that anything written about them goes stale quickly, including this. Check the current position on GOV.UK or with the relevant national body before you rely on it.

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Help tied to your circumstances

If you are over pension age, on a means tested benefit, or receiving disability benefits, you tend to qualify for more. Pension Credit in particular acts as a gateway: it unlocks eligibility for several energy schemes even though it is not a home improvement payment itself. A lot of people who could claim it do not.

Separately, work to adapt a home for a disabled person, and the installation of certain energy saving materials, is zero rated or reduced rated for VAT, subject to conditions about the type of work and who it is for. The zero rate on energy saving materials is time limited and due to revert to a reduced rate, so check the current rules. Not a grant, but it lowers the bill, and a reputable installer will apply it without being asked.

Be careful who you apply through

A large share of the sites advertising government grants for home improvements are lead generation businesses. You fill in a form to "check eligibility", your details are sold on, and what follows is a sales call for insulation, a boiler, solar panels or windows. Some of those installations are legitimate and funded under the schemes above. Some are not funded at all, and the word grant is doing the work of a discount.

You should never pay a fee to apply for a grant. Real schemes are applied for through your council, your energy supplier or a certified installer, and nobody credible needs a decision from you on the doorstep or over the phone. Check that installers are registered with TrustMark, and with MCS for heat pumps and solar. If you are unsure whether an offer is real, ring your council or the scheme itself on a number you have looked up yourself.

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 →