If you are looking for help with new windows in England in 2026, the Warm Homes: Local Grant is the scheme to understand first. It launched in April 2025, it is delivered by your local council rather than a national agency, and it runs to 2028, although a growing number of councils have already spent this year's money. It is also the route the government is now steering households towards as ECO4 winds down. The headline figures look generous, but the detail matters a great deal for glazing in particular, so this page sets out exactly what it covers, who qualifies and how to apply, without the sales spin. If it turns out you do not qualify, our grants hub covers the other UK schemes and our cost guidance shows what you would pay yourself.
What the Warm Homes: Local Grant is
The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the headline England energy-efficiency grant for lower-income households. Rather than being run by a single national body, it is allocated to participating local authorities, who deliver it on the ground and assess each home. It sits under the government's January 2026 Warm Homes Plan, a programme backed by just under £15bn of capital investment and described as the biggest energy-efficiency push in British history. As that plan ramps up, the Local Grant is the long-term home for funding that used to flow through the supplier-obligation model.
Who qualifies
Three conditions sit at the heart of eligibility, and you need to meet all of them:
- Property type and location. You need a privately-owned home, whether you are an owner-occupier or a private tenant, in a local authority that is taking part and still has money for the current year. Delivery is council by council, so the grant is only open where your council is accepting applications.
- Income, benefits or postcode. GOV.UK says household income must usually be £36,000 a year or less. Above that, you may still qualify if someone in the household gets a listed benefit (Housing Benefit, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support, Pension Credit savings or guarantee, or Universal Credit), or if you live in an eligible postcode area. Any one of the three is enough. Pensioners should read our page on grants for over 60s, because age on its own is not a route in.
- EPC band. Your home needs to be rated EPC band D to G, the colder, less efficient properties where upgrades make the most difference.
Even with all three met, an award is not automatic, because budgets are finite and councils prioritise the homes that need work most. The honest national picture is that only around 15% of households qualify for grant funding of any kind, so it is worth running your own numbers before you plan around it. Our grant eligibility checker walks you through the main conditions in a couple of minutes.
Is your council still taking applications?
Not everywhere, and this is now the first thing to check. The grant is funded in three project years, and the second runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Several councils have already used that year's money. As at 2 October 2026, Liverpool, Leeds, Northumberland, Tunbridge Wells and Stoke-on-Trent all say on their own websites that they are oversubscribed or have spent their current allocation, and are not taking new applications. Some are registering interest for the final year, from 1 April 2027, but none promises funding. The council-by-council detail is in our report on councils closing the Warm Homes Local Grant.
The GOV.UK checker will not tell you this. Its own page says your council arranges a survey if you are eligible and it "has funding available", so passing the online check proves the rules fit, not that there is money where you live. Look up your council's Warm Homes page before you plan around the grant, and if it is closed, register interest for 2027 where it offers that.
What it covers for glazing
Here is the part that trips people up. The grant has two separate cost caps. The DESNZ policy guidance for councils (July 2026) sets £16,600 per home for energy performance upgrades, which it says includes double glazing, energy efficient doors, insulation and draughtproofing. The other is £16,600 per home for low carbon heating, such as an air source heat pump. Together that is £33,200. Both caps rose from £15,000 in July 2026 to account for inflation, applied retrospectively, so older pages quoting £15,000 and £30,000 are out of date. The caps are what can be spent on average per home across a council project, not an amount each household is owed. Owner-occupiers are not expected to pay anything towards the work.
For windows, the number that actually applies is the £16,600 energy performance cap. Glazing and draught-proofing are paid from that, not from the full £33,200, because the heating cap can only be spent on heating. So if a salesperson implies you have £33,200 to throw at new windows, that is not how it works. Whether glazing is funded at all also depends on the council assessor, who decides which measures your home needs most from the available budget. New windows can be approved, but insulation often comes first where a home is losing more heat through walls or lofts. Council lists bear this out: of the five councils above, only Liverpool names windows and doors among the measures it offers, and Northumberland includes them only in exceptional circumstances. If you want to understand where glazing sits among the options, read whether double glazing is worth it for your home and our comparison of double versus triple glazing.
Treat the £33,200 headline with care. For windows you are really talking about the £16,600 energy performance cap, and the council, not you, decides what gets funded. Homeowners assume new windows are guaranteed, then find the assessor has put loft and wall insulation first because that is where the heat was actually escaping. Sort the grant through the official channel before you commit to anything.
Double Glazing Cost Calculator Team
How to apply
Applying is straightforward and free, and you should only ever use the official route. The process runs as follows:
- Check the basics.Confirm your home, income or benefits and EPC band against the conditions above, and check your council's own Warm Homes page to see whether it is still taking applications.
- Use the GOV.UK eligibility checker. Complete the checker at gov.uk/apply-warm-homes-local-grant, which runs through the income, benefit and property conditions.
- Your application is passed on. If you appear eligible, the application is handed to your local authority, who can flex the criteria at their discretion.
- Have your home assessed. The council arranges an assessment to decide which measures your home needs, including whether glazing is funded from the fabric pot.
Never pay a third party to apply on your behalf, and never sign for windows on the strength of a grant that nobody has confirmed. Following how to avoid being overcharged keeps you on safe ground whether or not the grant comes through.
How it relates to ECO4
The Warm Homes: Local Grant is best understood as the successor to the old supplier-obligation approach, and the two are now separated by an order of magnitude in what each has actually installed. ECO4 has been extended and now closes on 31 December 2026, with no replacement supplier obligation after it. As ECO4 ends, the Local Grant is the route the government is steering households towards, which is why it matters so much for anyone planning glazing work over the next couple of years. If you are eligible for ECO4 through income-related benefits, it can still be worth applying through an installer while it lasts, then turning to the Local Grant for the longer term. Outside England the picture is different again: in Scotland the route for windows is the Home Energy Scotland interest-free loan rather than a grant, so check the scheme for your nation before you plan.
Frequently asked questions
It can. The DESNZ policy guidance names double glazing and energy efficient doors among the energy performance measures, which share a cap of £16,600 per home. They do not draw on the separate £16,600 heating cap, so glazing sits within the £16,600 energy performance cap rather than the £33,200 combined figure. In practice the council decides which measures your home needs most.
Since July 2026 the cost caps are £16,600 per home for energy performance upgrades, including glazing and draught-proofing, and a separate £16,600 per home for low carbon heating such as an air source heat pump. That is £33,200 combined, but glazing comes from the energy performance cap only. The caps rose from £15,000 to account for inflation, apply retrospectively, and are averages across a council project rather than an amount owed to each home. Owner-occupiers are not expected to contribute.
You need a privately-owned home (owner-occupied or privately rented) in England with an EPC of D to G, and one of three things: a household income of usually £36,000 a year or less, someone in the household on a listed benefit such as Pension Credit or Universal Credit, or an address in an eligible postcode area. They are alternatives, so you need only one. Only around 15% of households qualify for grant funding of any kind, so check before assuming you are covered.
Use the eligibility checker at gov.uk/apply-warm-homes-local-grant. If you appear eligible, your application is passed to your local authority, who can flex the criteria at their discretion. You apply through the official GOV.UK route, not a third party, and never pay anyone to apply on your behalf.
It launched in April 2025 and runs to March 2028, delivered by local councils in three project years. The second runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, and several councils have already used that year's money, so the scheme being open nationally does not mean your council is taking applications. It sits under the January 2026 Warm Homes Plan, the government's just under £15bn home-energy programme, and it is the scheme households are being steered towards as ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026.
That is now common. As at 2 October 2026, Liverpool, Leeds, Northumberland, Tunbridge Wells and Stoke-on-Trent all say on their own websites that they are oversubscribed or have spent their allocation for April 2026 to March 2027. Some are registering interest for the final project year from 1 April 2027, but none promises funding. In the meantime check ECO4 if you are on benefits, since it runs to 31 December 2026, and price the work privately.
No. The Warm Homes Loan Scheme, which starts lending to households from September 2026, finances heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and a few other low-carbon measures. Its scheme rules list windows and doors, with insulation, as costs it does not cover. Any loan you take for windows is ordinary credit at an ordinary rate.