The UK government’s £15 billion Warm Homes Plan is ambitious and far-reaching – but there’s still no start date, no confirmed eligibility criteria, and none of the details you need to plan your future.

In this guide, we’ll run through everything we do know about the Warm Homes Plan, including what the scheme might provide to homeowners, renters, and business across the UK, and our best guesses for who’ll be eligible for each programme.

While the Warm Homes Plan aims to provide funding for a handful of home upgrades, we’re focused specifically on solar panels and batteries – and we have the expert knowledge and ongoing support that can help you make the most of your system.

If you’re wondering how much you could save with a solar & battery system, enter a few details below and we’ll provide an estimate.

What is the Warm Homes Plan?

The Warm Homes Plan is the UK government's flagship £15 billion home energy efficiency programme, announced in January 2026.

It has three main goals – cut energy bills, bring down carbon emissions, and reduce fuel poverty – and while pursuing these objectives, the government aims to upgrade five million homes by 2030.

To hit this target, the Warm Homes Plan has been created as an umbrella scheme that includes several initiatives. These come with a variety of eligibility criteria and launch dates, and are therefore all at very different stages of delivery.

Solar is set to feature prominently. In its January announcement, the government said “rooftop solar will play a vital role in the Warm Homes Plan as one of the best technologies to help consumers save money.”

The government added that the scheme “will ensure low-income and middle-income households and those in the private and social rented sectors can access the benefits of this technology.”

It also created a specific goal: “Triple the number of homes with solar today by deploying panels on the rooftops of up to three million more homes.”

This would result in a total of 4.6 million solar homes by the next decade. The UK’s current install rate has us hitting this mark in 2042, so the industry could be set for rapid growth.

It won’t just be about solar though, with the government explaining: “Our capital investment will deliver home upgrades to fuel poor households that will focus on installing rooftop solar alongside insulation, clean heat, and home batteries.”

Key timeline

Here are a few important dates you should bear in mind, which we’ll provide more detail about throughout this article.

What solar funding will the Warm Homes Plan provide?

The Warm Homes Plan’s solar funding will come in two main parts – one that targets deprived households, and one that serves everyone else.

It’s been designed to ensure “that the transformative benefits of solar power are available to all.”

Free solar panels for low-income households

The government has allocated £5 billion to ensuring England’s low-income households and homes in fuel poverty get a range of free upgrades.

As well as solar panels and batteries, these measures include insulation, smart controls, and heat pumps.

These home improvements will at first be carried out through the Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG) and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF), which already fund upgrades for energy-inefficient private and social housing, respectively.

The government plans to more than double these initiatives’ funding levels from a combined £462 million per year in 2025/26 to £1 billion per year in 2027/28, when they’re set to merge into one scheme.

Who’s eligible?

All we know so far is that this part of the Warm Homes Plan will be aimed at England’s “low-income and fuel poor households”.

But since it’s set to initially be delivered through the WH:LG and WH:SHF, we can assume that the eligibility criteria will be roughly similar to what these schemes currently require.

To qualify for the WH:LG, you must:

You’ll also have to be eligible through one of these three routes:

To benefit from the WH:SHF, you must live in social housing owned by a provider that’s managed to obtain funding.

You can’t apply directly for either the WH:LG and WH:SHF. Instead, you’ll have to rely on your local authority or social housing provider to secure funding, then pick your home for upgrades.

For more information on schemes including the WH:LG and WH:SHF, check out our full guide to all the solar panel grants in the UK.

Low- or zero-interest loans for everyone else

Other homeowners in England will have access to low- or zero-interest loans through the new £2 billion Consumer Loans scheme.

This will mainly be aimed at domestic owner-occupiers, with the aim of removing the upfront cost barrier that stops so many people from getting energy efficiency systems like solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps.

The government has said it’ll work with the finance industry to create loans that work for different households and technologies, and will “expand the scheme over time in response to demand.”

This programme, which is part of a subsection of the Warm Homes Plan called the Warm Homes Fund, is set to get £1.7 billion from the government and £300 million from the private sector.

As well as operating the Consumer Loans scheme, the Warm Homes Fund will also have £3.3 billion to give to companies that create innovative finance products associated with energy-efficient upgrades.

Unfortunately, the Warm Homes Fund doesn’t have a start date, as of May 2026. The government’s call for evidence closes in June, and it’s said it’ll update the public “later in 2026.”

Who’s eligible?

The Consumer Loans scheme is designed to be accessible to most homeowners, so the criteria aren’t likely to be stringent – but the government hasn’t released any details yet.

You’ll have to be the owner-occupier of the property you want to improve, qualify for a loan, and fulfil all the other standard requirements for getting rooftop solar panels, such as roof suitability and planning permission (though most don’t need it).

But otherwise, we don’t expect many restrictions. The government’s repeatedly emphasised that it wants the Consumer Loans scheme to serve a large number of homes.

It’s also promised to make the financial products “straightforward”, and design the scheme so it’s “simple to navigate”, with all the same “robust consumer protection” measures present across the sector.

Funding for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland

The government has said that £1.5 billion will be allocated to “other funding for Warm Homes Plan programmes and devolved administrations”.

This means that Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will receive 10% of the scheme’s £15 billion funding total, at most – but depending on how it’s shared out, it could still massively outstrip current solar funding in these nations.

For example, when it comes to solar grants in Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan scheme paid out £31.8 million between 2017 and 2024.

And the Welsh government has spent around £251 million on the Warm Homes Nest scheme since 2011, which includes grants for solar panels and other improvements.

Both of these amounts could be dwarfed by the Warm Homes Plan, and over a much shorter period of time – so as long as the scheme is effective, it could still greatly accelerate the rate of solar uptake in these nations.

We have practically no details about how this funding will be used yet, since the devolved administrations are all responsible for combatting fuel poverty and household emissions in their countries – and they haven’t revealed any plans yet.

However, it seems likely that Wales will channel any funding it receives into the long-established Warm Homes Nest scheme, while Scotland will probably make the same move with its Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan initiative.

Northern Ireland may well do the same with its new Warm Healthy Homes Strategy, which includes £150 million of planned energy-efficiency grants for deprived households.

If any of these administrations want to implement low- or zero-interest solar loans though, they’ll have to set up new schemes – just like England.

What funding is available now?

There are several options available right now for anyone seeking solar funding.

We’ve already covered the WH:LG and WH:SHF, which provide financial assistance to social housing landlords and underprivileged private households, and are set to run until 2028.

Now let’s look at your other choices, including energy efficiency upgrades for deprived households, schemes built specifically for homes in Wales, solar subscriptions, and green mortgages.

ECO4

This is the fourth phase of the UK government's £4 billion Energy Company Obligation scheme, which aims to reduce fuel poverty and carbon emissions across Britain.

The initiative, which began in July 2022 and is set to end in December 2026 , compels large energy suppliers to install energy efficiency measures like solar panels in deprived homes, for free.

Each supplier must serve a certain number of households per year, and the changes must significantly raise each home’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating.

ECO4 doesn't include solar batteries though, so that purchase would be left up to you.

For more information, read our full guide to ECO4.

Warm Homes Nest Scheme

This Welsh government programme funds free energy-efficient home improvements including insulation, heat pumps, and solar panels.

To qualify, you have to own or privately rent your home and either live in a low-income household or receive a valid means-tested benefit.

Your property must also have an EPC rating of E, F, or G, though it can be a D rating if a member of your household has a chronic circulatory, respiratory, or mental health condition.

The scheme has been going in some form since 2011, and is due to end in April 2031 at the earliest.

It operates in conjunction with the Green Homes Wales, another government scheme that provides interest-free loans that households can use for energy efficiency measures.

To learn more, read our guide to solar panel grants in Wales.

Solar subscriptions

A solar subscription lets you switch to solar with no upfront cost.

Sunsave Plus is the UK’s first solar subscription, and comes with a fixed monthly fee for 20 years. Crucially, it is not a rent-a-roof scheme, and you legally own your system from day one.

Spreading out the cost like this makes it possible in many cases for your monthly energy bill savings to exceed your monthly payment to Sunsave. That means you’d actually have more money in your pocket each year.

Having fixed monthly payments also gives you some protection against energy bill inflation – and speaking of safeguards, every Sunsave Plus system is protected for the full term by the Sunsave Guarantee.

This includes 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, a free battery upgrade and replacement inverter if needed, downtime cover, and insurance.

You can learn what our customers think by reading their reviews on Trustpilot – and to find out more about Sunsave Plus, read our guide to whether solar subscriptions are worth it.

If you’re wondering how much you could save with a solar & battery system, enter a few details below and we’ll provide an estimate.

Green mortgages

These are mortgages that include an incentive to either buy an energy-efficient home or make eco-friendly upgrades after you've moved in, according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

Financial institutions including Barclays, Halifax, and Lloyds offer cashback schemes to their mortgage customers. You just have to join the relevant scheme and get an eligible energy-efficient improvement, like a solar & battery system.

Other lenders like Nationwide also offer a cashback reward, but to qualify, you have to get a mortgage on a property with an EPC rating of A or B.

To find out more, read our guide to green mortgages and green home rewards.

Is the Warm Homes Plan worth waiting for?

Low-income and fuel-poor households won’t have to wait for anything, as the improvements mentioned in the Warm Homes Plan are already available through existing schemes.

Even when the scheme starts, it’ll funnel its funding through these established initiatives.

And if you’re looking for a low- or zero-interest solar loan, it may not be worth the wait.

The 0% VAT discount on solar panel and battery installations is set to end in March 2027, meaning you could pay 5% VAT (or 20% in some cases) before the loans become available.

Low-interest solar panel loans are already available, and well worth exploring – including Sunsave Plus, although this is different to a standard loan because it comes with a 20-year maintenance guarantee and flexible repayment options.

The government plans to open a new Warm Homes Agency to oversee the delivery of its flagship energy efficiency scheme , and we’ll know more when it’s up and running – but it may not be a good idea to wait that long to go solar.

If you’re wondering how much you could save with a solar & battery system, enter a few details below and we’ll provide an estimate.

The Warm Homes Plan: FAQs