Carbon Brief's Q&A on the Warm Homes Plan is the most level-headed explainer published since the announcement, and worth reading in full. Our contribution is narrower: what the plan means if you own or rent one home in London.

The shape of it

£15 billion of public investment over five years. An ambition to upgrade up to five million homes and lift one million families out of fuel poverty by 2030. Around £4.4bn of that is direct grant funding for installations. A new Warm Homes Agency to run it, replacing a landscape of separate schemes that even the industry struggled to navigate.

What you can actually apply for

  • Boiler Upgrade Scheme — £7,500 towards a heat pump, not means tested, claimed by your installer and deducted from the quote. Confirmed to run to 2030, with a temporary £9,000 rate for eligible off-gas-grid properties and a newer £2,500 rate for air-to-air heat pumps and heat batteries.
  • Warm Homes Local Grant — up to £15,000 for low-income households, administered by your council, so availability differs by borough.
  • ECO4 — still open to qualifying households but closing on 31 December 2026, with no carry-over and no successor obligation scheme.

The London-specific catch

Most of this funding is designed around measures that work best on the stock London has least of. Cavity wall insulation is the classic funded measure and much of inner London simply has no cavity to fill. Loft insulation assumes a loft, which a converted flat does not have.

So the London reality is that the headline grants land unevenly. Heat pump support is genuinely useful and genuinely available. Deep fabric support is available in principle but the qualifying measures are harder to apply to solid-walled terraces and purpose-built flats, and conservation area constraints remove some options entirely.

None of which is a reason not to apply. It is a reason to find out what your specific property qualifies for before you build a plan around a scheme that will not fit it.

Every route starts the same way

No scheme pays out on a quote. A valid EPC is the baseline for heat pump funding; deeper funded work under PAS 2035 needs a full retrofit assessment. Getting the assessment done is the step that makes every other step possible.

We assess across London. Book online for £69, or ask us a question first.