Warm Home Discount (WHD): cost recovery

We consulted between 8 December 2025 and 6 January 2026 on proposals to move Warm Home Discount cost recovery from the fixed standing charge to the unit rate, to align contributions to a household’s actual energy consumption.

This government response summarises the consultation feedback and sets out the government’s decision. It confirms that energy suppliers should recover Warm Home Discount costs from the unit rate for electricity and gas from 1 April 2026. The government will update how the supplier reconciliation process is conducted so that supplier obligations are settled against actual energy volumes supplied. An industry wide feedback loop will be introduced so that any aggregate under or over recovery, owing to differences between forecast and actual demand in one scheme year, is corrected in the following year

We received 778 responses to the consultation from a variety of stakeholders, including:

• individuals
• energy suppliers
• consumer groups
• charities
• industry bodies