The Green Homes Grant is back!
In early July 2020, the UK Government announced another raft of funding to kick-off in September 2020, to help fund energy saving improvements to UK homes and public sector buildings. The £2billion scheme will fund domestic, social housing and other public buildings installing measures such as loft insulation, new boilers and double glazed windows.
This brand new scheme should be very popular with UK homeowners and promises to be administered in a similar fashion to the previously successful Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. In this announcement, support has been given to insulation, low carbon heating and other secondary measures like glazing and heating controls. If a householder is in a position to take advantage of all the offers (i.e. Solid wall insulation, with multiple measures from the other list and also be in fuel poverty), they can get up to £10,000 towards the cost of the works. Otherwise the grant will be capped at £5,000 per property.
In this article we will provide our own unique view on what measures will give you the best financial return.
We have been involved with previous Government funded schemes such as the Green Deal (in the early 2010’s), and over the years we have followed and closely examined changes to these incentives. In addition, we have also undertaken 10,000s of Energy Assessments and home retrofit surveys ovee the years so are fairly confident we can highlight how you can best benefit from the new Green Homes Grant scheme.
How is the Green Homes Grant different to other recently delivered schemes?
There are some fundamental differences in the make-up of the Green Homes Grant scheme and other previously delivered schemes. Differences explored below:
- The scheme has distinguished the difference between primary and secondary energy improvement measures, with secondary measures being eligible for funding if a primary measure is also being installed.
- The primary measures consist of insulation and low carbon heating only. In previous schemes all energy efficiency measures were given an equal weighting for the application of the grant.
- No room for fan-assisted storage heaters or replacement warm air units in this scheme.
- Glazing, whether this is secondary or double (replacing single glazing) is only a secondary measure.
- The funding earmarked to this scheme at £2billion is much more comprehensive in value to any other scheme funded before.
- There is an additional £500m earmarked towards Social Housing Landlords and Local Authorities.
Who qualifies for the Green Homes Grant Scheme?
If you are a home owner in the UK you qualify for the improvements offered under this scheme. This includes leaseholders, park home owners and shared ownership owners. Private and Social Landlords also qualify for improvements, but would not qualify for the “low income top-up” as part of this scheme.
Also if a separate grant is received via the Local Authority Delivery Scheme (LADS), then property improvers would not qualify for a separate Green Deal Homes voucher.
What sort of measures does the Green Homes Grant allow me to install?
The scheme is split into primary and secondary measures, where the improver must undertake at least one primary measure before adding on a secondary measure. The full list of primary and secondary measures are listed below:
Primary measures
According to the Government Website, the voucher must be used to install at least 1 primary measure. This can be an insulation measure and/or a low carbon heating measure.
Insulation measures
The following insulation measures are covered by the voucher:
- solid wall
- under floor
- cavity wall
- loft
- flat roof
- room in roof
- insulating a park home
The following low carbon heating measures are covered by the voucher:
- air or ground source heat pump
- solar thermal (liquid filled flat plate or evacuated tube collectors)
- biomass boilers
Note: you cannot use the voucher to install insulation to replace existing insulation or to replace a low carbon heating source that was already in situ.
You can however use the voucher to top-up existing insulation. For example, if you have 50mm loft insulation, you can use the voucher to top-up the insulation to 300mm.
Secondary measures
You must install at least one measure above and then the voucher can be used to help cover the cost of any of the following secondary measures:
- draught proofing
- double/triple glazing (where replacing single glazed windows)
- secondary glazing (in addition to single glazing)
- external energy efficient doors (replacing single glazed or solid doors installed before 2002)
- heating controls
- hot water tank thermostats and insulation
The amount allocated towards the cost of the secondary measures cannot exceed the amount you receive for primary measures.
What happens if I am claiming other grants and subsidies – Am I still eligible?
If you have claimed the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), then you can still apply for the Green Homes Grant provided it is to fund a different measure. For example, you may have had funding under ECO for loft insulation but you want to use the Green Homes Grant for solid wall insulation. In this case this is absolutely fine as you have decided to install a primary measure. You can still use the left over grant to install another primary or secondary measure.
Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
The Green Homes Grant can still be used in conjunction with the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RHI is a 7 year, quarterly paid subsidy to the improver for installing a low carbon heating measure listed above. If using the Green Homes Grant to install heat pump, you must when you are accrediting your system inform OFGEM that the voucher had been used, so they can deduct the payments off your RHI subsidy.
The Green Homes Grant can still be used if you have a low heating source in situ, but must be used towards a primary measure like improving the insulation levels.
Other eligibility criteria for the Green Homes Grant scheme
This voucher scheme currently only applies to England. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, if you are looking for grants for energy saving measures, then best to speak to your local authority for more information.
New-build properties that have not previously been occupied are not eligible for the scheme.
The deadline set to use the voucher is by March 2021 – our opinion is that setting 6 months to spend the voucher when there will be a turn in the weather will not be good to deliver external wall insulation. This measure is so weather dependant.
Scenarios where a Green Homes Grant cannot be used
If you are building a new extension or building a loft extension then you cannot use the Green Homes Grant towards any of these measures.
You can however use the voucher towards improving the insulation of the existing elements of your property, such as installing external wall insulation or floor insulation.
Think we missed something? Do you have a different opinion?
Comment below to get your voice heard…
“This may be a perfect time to have that flat roof re-felted and also insulted.”
‘I hope you like your new felt you stupid old roof!’
We saw exceptional demand for surveys leading up to the second release of GDHIF, therefore if you are interested in taking advantage of the scheme regardless of where you are in the UK, I recommend getting in touch with an assessor company ASAP to ensure they can fit you in. Remember if you secure yourself a voucher for the works then you have 6 months to finish them – and if you do secure the voucher, you can then change your chosen installer to someone else (provided they are still signed up to the GDHIF scheme).
We are 5 flats in a converted house owning share of freehold. Can we collectively apply for new / 1st time roof felt installation and external wall rendering?
Hello, James. Are you sure that, under the Green Homes Grant scheme, you can change the installer after you’ve submitted a quote from one installer and received a voucher in response to that application? It’s proving very difficult to get a double-glazed window installer at all as they’re all too busy (there were only six that came up when I put my postcode in) and even Trustmark says that there aren’t enough installers with the particular certification required by GHG (PAS certification as well as Trustmark). Is GDHIF, to which you refer, something different? If you can get a voucher by submitting one quote but then choose a different installer, that would help as they say that new installers are joining. At the moment I’m expecting to have to get a double-glazing tradesman outside of the scheme because only one has come back to me or asked for photos and measurements of my windows. And how you know if they do good work?
IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE EXTERIOR CLADDING AND INSULATION ADDED TO MY COTTAGE IN THIS SCHEME?
Hi – yes, external wall insulation is a big part of the green homes grant scheme – give us a shout if you need any installers as we have a network all over the country.
I need external wall insulation . Some carried out surveys but no quotes received yet, chasing too many times but seems they too busy.
hi can use the grant for external wall insulation, old house .?
Yes – absolutely the green homes grant scheme can defintely be used for external wall insulation.
A previous owner of my house had polystyrene beads put into the wall cavity. I have had building work done (not an extension) and as a result much of the polystyrene is now missing from the walls. Can the green homes grant be used to top up the cavity insulation with more polystyrene?
I have a Johnson and Starley warm air central heating ….can I use the grant to replace it with a newer model
Hi. I have a question: I deal with water heaters (here is the link: https://contractorfinder.bradfordwhite.com/contractors) and accordingly I can do this part of the work myself. However, I have a problem with the exterior facade of the building, as one of the 4 walls simply remained brick, and therefore the walls inside are leaking and freezing. So can I count on help with the design of this wall?
Thanks for your report,
Is it the case that say I choose to install a air pump as the primary ,then I could add replacement double glazing as a secondary?
Dear Sirs,
We are trying to arrange for installation of EWI and have secured funding for this. We have manged to extend the Voucher for a further 3 months. We are having issues with formal planning permission for this and need to find an installer that will put in a less bulky system, such as Kooltherm K5 as discovered on your very informative website. Could you please help us find an installer? We live in the North East of England. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated in finding someone who would be willing to come out and provide us with a quotation so as to enable us to get on with the job. Many thanks, Linda
We have bought a 200-year-old property with solid walls and old double glazing and LPG gas. We would like advice on which would be the best heating system to use, a ground source heat pump or infrared panels. and how to find out the best way to insulate the house as some of the floor areas is concrete. We will be moving our homebrew business https://www.brewmart.co.uk/ into the property and would like to know if we can claim any grants toward the costs