The Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) provides energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating via local authority funding, to households in England that:

• are low income
• are off the gas grid
• have an an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) between D and G

Up to £630 million of grant funding is available for successful local authorities to help them deliver HUG 2 from April 2023 until March 2025. Funding will be released to successful local authorities in the financial years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.

Local authorities are delivering the first phase of the Home Upgrade Grant as part of the sustainable warmth competition.

Successful local authorities will use the funding to install energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating to eligible homes in their area. Measures could include for example home insulation with an air source heat pump if suitable. Upgrades should be tailored to individual homes so that the most appropriate measures are installed.

Homeowners on a low income do not contribute to the cost of upgrades.

For those renting their home:

• private landlords must contribute at least a third of the total cost of the upgrade
• social landlords must contribute at least half of the total cost

All upgrades need to be within the relevant cost caps to be eligible.

Eligible homeowners, tenants and private landlords were able to check whether their local authority had funding and contact them for next steps.

How it works

Phase 2 of the Home Upgrade Grant is now closed to applications. Local authorities had to apply for the funding by 27 January 2023.

BEIS assessed applications at 2 deadlines:

• 18 November 2022
• 27 January 2023

There are 3 stages during the application process.

Outline application stage

Local authorities are asked about:

• the size of their project
• commercial and delivery assurance
• how they plan to target and verify low income households

Delivery assurance check

Local authorities are asked to provide evidence on their resourcing and procurement progress to show they have contractors in place to begin delivery and can also revise project delivery forecasts and project plans.

Batch application stage

Local authorities are asked to submit:

• housing stock data on homes surveyed
• the mix of energy efficiency measures and clean heat measures they intend to install
• the upgrade costs for the batch of homes, including the cost of measures to be installed

This final step is repeated throughout the delivery window, with funding released in batches subject to need.

Background

The 2021 fuel poverty strategy sets out the government’s plan to improve the energy efficiency in people’s homes and reducing energy bills for fuel poor households.

The Heat and buildings strategy announced £950 million to be allocated to the home upgrade grant from April 2022 to March 2025.