What the Warm Homes Plan actually is
In January 2026 the government set out the Warm Homes Plan, the umbrella programme that now sits over almost every home energy efficiency scheme in the UK. The headline figure is just under £15bn of capital investment, which ministers describe as the biggest energy efficiency programme in British history. Within that total sits £1.5bn of additional grant funding aimed squarely at low-income households in fuel poverty, money that replaces the old supplier-obligation model rather than topping it up.
A second figure has since become the one the government quotes most often, and it is worth understanding why the two do not clash. Low-income and fuel-poor households will benefit from around £5 billion investment to 2030, with £4.4 billion in direct capital grants backed by an initial £600 million from the Warm Homes Fund. That £5bn is the slice pointed at fuel poverty, not the size of the programme. The just under £15bn remains the capital total. If you see either number quoted alone, check which one is being described before drawing conclusions about how much is available for your own home.
For homeowners the practical question is narrower than the headline. The plan does not hand out cash for double glazing to anyone who asks. It reshapes how the existing schemes work, and it moves the money around, which is the kind of shift we log in our double glazing news and policy updates. If you want the full picture of what is on offer right now, our guide to double glazing grants sets out every scheme by nation.
What has been delivered since January
Six months of implementation have turned a set of announcements into working machinery, and the shape of it matters more to a homeowner than the headline number ever did. Three changes stand out: the money has been pushed down to mayors, a loan scheme has been built for lenders rather than households, and one insulation scheme has closed on schedule.
£130 million devolved to five mayors
In March 2026 the government accelerated the next round of devolved funding for local mayors to deliver home upgrades in their areas. The mayors of Liverpool, London and West Yorkshire now receive funding to upgrade low-income homes street by street, joining the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands in having this £130 million of funding fully devolved.
That single sentence changes the nature of the question. A national programme with one set of rules becomes a postcode question, because in those five areas it is the combined authority, not Whitehall, deciding which streets get done and in what order. Street-by-street delivery also means the timing is not something an individual household controls: you may be eligible on paper and still be waiting for your street to come round. Three of the five named areas are ones we already track prices for, so if you are weighing up what a private job would cost while you wait, our figures for window prices in Liverpool, what installers charge in London and Manchester window costs give you the market rate to compare against. For the rest of England the council-run route is unchanged.
The Warm Homes Loan Scheme: £300 million, aimed at lenders
In June 2026 the government published the Warm Homes Loan Scheme, announced in the Warm Homes Plan and developed to unlock private lending and investment at scale for home retrofit. The scheme aims to support the growth of the green home finance market by deploying £300 million of grant capital and working with lenders to increase demand for and reduce the financing cost of energy efficiency improvements in owner-occupied and private rented homes.
Read that carefully, because it is easy to misread as a homeowner offer. It is not one. This is a scheme that lenders apply to, not a loan you can apply for, and the published description covers energy efficiency improvements in general without naming windows or glazing anywhere. Lender applications for the first tranche closed before the page was last updated on 12 August 2026, and the government expects to open a further application window later in 2026. What it amounts to today is groundwork: public money used to make green home finance cheaper and more widely offered by banks and building societies in future. If it works, the effect most people will notice is a better rate on a retrofit loan from their own lender at some point down the line, not a grant form on GOV.UK.
The Great British Insulation Scheme has closed
The Great British Insulation Scheme ended as planned on 31 March 2026, exactly as the January documents forecast. Nothing was extended and nothing replaced it. ECO4 is the scheme that was extended, and it is unchanged: it still runs to 31 December 2026, and re-checking in August 2026 confirms there is still no successor supplier obligation and no ECO5. We have covered the detail and the eligibility rules in our piece on the ECO4 extension to December 2026, which is the route most low-income households still use.
One tax point sits alongside all of this. The installation of certain energy-saving materials continues to qualify for the temporary zero rate of VAT until 31 March 2027. The technologies named in that passage are heat pumps and ancillary measures, so it should not be read as confirmation that new windows are zero-rated. That is a separate question, and the right place to settle it is on the quote itself: ask the installer to state the VAT treatment in writing before you sign.
A second and completely separate VAT change lands on 1 October 2026, when VAT on domestic electricity drops from 5% to 0%. That one is a tax on the electricity you buy rather than on the work you have done, it does not cover gas, and it says nothing about whether window installation is zero-rated. The two are going to be confused constantly, so it is worth keeping them apart.
The overall takeaway has not changed since January. Supplier-funded help is winding down rather than growing. If your circumstances fit ECO4, applying sooner rather than later is the safe move.
Where the money goes instead: the Warm Homes Local Grant
There is now published evidence of what that machinery has actually installed. The first Warm Homes: Local Grant delivery figures cover April 2025 to July 2026 and record 11,247 measures in 5,469 English homes, of which 216 were double or triple glazing.
Outside the devolved areas, funding is shifting towards the council-run Warm Homes: Local Grant in England. This is where double glazing fits. The grant covers up to £15,000 for fabric measures, including double or triple glazing, with a separate pot of up to £15,000 towards a low-carbon heating system such as a heat pump. Those two pots are not interchangeable. Glazing draws on the fabric £15,000 only, so treat £15,000 as your ceiling for windows rather than the £30,000 combined figure you will sometimes see quoted. To qualify you need a household income under £36,000 or to be on benefits, a home rated EPC band D to G, and you need to live in a participating local authority. The scheme is open to 2028. Our dedicated page on the Warm Homes Local Grant walks through how to apply.
The honest framing for homeowners
Here is the part the press releases skip over. Only around 15% of households qualify for grant funding of any kind, and nothing delivered between January and August 2026 has widened that. The £130 million devolution moved existing money closer to the people spending it, and the £300 million loan scheme is building a finance market rather than paying for anyone's windows. The plan also set the path to tougher energy standards for rented homes, with a target of EPC band C by 2030, which we examine in our coverage of the EPC C requirement for landlords by 2030. How that band is measured is itself being rewritten, which we cover in our piece on the EPC overhaul and the Home Energy Model, alongside the rest of our double glazing news and policy updates. Those targets matter for landlords, but they do not put money in the average owner-occupier's pocket today.
Grant headlines never match what lands on most doormats. Six months on from the announcement, the honest position is that the money moved sideways rather than outwards: a loan scheme for banks and a pot handed to mayors. If you are in the 85% who do not qualify, do not put the job off waiting for funding that is not coming. Price it privately, get three written quotes, and treat any grant you do get as a bonus rather than the plan.
Double Glazing Cost Calculator Team
If you are unsure which side of the line you fall on, our grant eligibility checker runs through the income, benefit and EPC rules in a couple of minutes so you know whether it is worth starting an application at all. Sources: GOV.UK, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, ECO4 government response (23 January 2026); GOV.UK Warm Homes Plan; GOV.UK press release on becoming energy secure (15 March 2026); GOV.UK Warm Homes Loan Scheme lender guidance (first published 24 June 2026, updated 12 August 2026).
Frequently asked questions
Not directly across the country. The plan channels money through the council-run Warm Homes: Local Grant in England, which covers up to £15,000 for fabric measures including double or triple glazing. You must live in a participating local authority, have a household income under £36,000 or be on benefits, and own a home rated EPC band D to G. The separate pot of up to £15,000 for low-carbon heating cannot be spent on windows.
Three things. In March 2026 the government confirmed that £130 million of Warm Homes funding is fully devolved to five mayors, covering Liverpool, London, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. In June 2026 it launched the Warm Homes Loan Scheme, deploying £300 million of grant capital through lenders. And the Great British Insulation Scheme ended as planned on 31 March 2026.
No. At this stage the Warm Homes Loan Scheme is a scheme for lenders, not a product a homeowner can apply for. The government describes it as deploying £300 million of grant capital and working with lenders to increase demand for and reduce the financing cost of energy efficiency improvements in owner-occupied and private rented homes. The first tranche of lender applications has closed, and the government expects to open a further application window later in 2026. The published description does not name windows or glazing.
It means the answer to what help is available now depends on your postcode more than it did in January. The mayors of Liverpool, London and West Yorkshire receive funding to upgrade low-income homes street by street, joining the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands in having this £130 million of funding fully devolved. If you live in one of those areas, your combined authority decides how the money is spent. If you do not, the council-run Warm Homes: Local Grant is still the main route.
Yes, and nothing has changed since January. ECO4 was extended to 31 December 2026, and the government confirmed at the November 2025 Budget that there will be no successor supplier obligation after it ends. Re-checked in August 2026, there is still no ECO5. The Great British Insulation Scheme closed as planned on 31 March 2026.
The installation of certain energy-saving materials continues to qualify for the temporary zero rate of VAT until 31 March 2027. The technologies named in that government passage are heat pumps and ancillary measures, so do not assume window installation is covered by it. Whether new glazing is zero-rated is a separate question that the passage does not answer, and it is worth asking any installer to put the VAT treatment in writing on the quote.
Only around 15% of households qualify for grant funding of any kind. For everyone else the work is paid for privately, so it is sensible to price a job on that basis rather than wait for funding.
The plan set the path to tougher energy standards for rented homes, with a target of EPC band C by 2030. Landlords will need to factor glazing and insulation upgrades into their plans well before that date.