A Cambridgeshire homeowner says he suspected the Warm Homes Local Grant scheme was a scam right up until the work was finished and the paperwork landed in his hands. David Brain, from Wisbech, had solar panels installed at no cost through the scheme, and says his electricity bill has since fallen to 2p a day. But the councils delivering the programme in the county have now exhausted their £3.5 million allocation and are asking the government for more.
The warm homes local grant is aimed at households in England with an energy performance certificate rating of D or below and an annual income of usually £36,000 or less, or those receiving certain benefits. Where a council has funding, a home survey is arranged, and improvements such as solar panels, air-source heat pumps and insulation can be installed.
How the Warm Homes Local Grant scheme works in practice
Brain said he first heard about the scheme from someone who knocked on his door, which did little to ease his doubts. ‘We were very sceptical, but we went online and we checked them out, and then we checked whether it was a legitimate thing through the government website,’ he said. The household registered, received a call from an appointed contractor, and had a survey carried out. Even then, Brain remained wary. ‘We were still very, very sceptical, but we worked through the process. They answered the questions. There was no hard sell or a hard push, and because they’d satisfied my scepticism, we went ahead.’
It was only once the installation was complete that he was convinced. ‘It was only at the end, once the process had been done and they’d sent me the handover package, that I thought, “Well, you know, it does seem too good to be true, but you know, we were a beneficiary from it, thankfully.”‘
Not everyone in the county has been so fortunate. Trevor Dewey, from Little Downham, had been hoping for a new boiler and solar panels through the scheme. A contractor visited his home, but the work did not proceed. ‘We had a phone call the other day telling us the scheme had run out of money, and maybe there’d be more money coming in 12 months’ time,’ he said. ‘We’re disappointed.’
Cambridgeshire councils seek fresh funding as local pot runs dry
In Cambridgeshire, the grant is delivered through the Cambridgeshire Energy Retrofit Partnership, which brings together six councils. The partnership has helped 245 homes so far. Labour councillor Rosy Moore, from Cambridge City Council, which is the lead authority, said the partnership’s success had created the very problem it now faces. ‘We’ve been so successful that all of our [grant] money is booked to be spent, as it were, that’s all in the pipeline. So we’ve actually written to the department and asked if they could extend it for us because our partnership is working so well.’
The national scheme was launched in April 2025 and operates through 270 local authorities across England, according to UK Energy Partnership. The overall pot stands at £500 million over three years, running from 2025 to 2028, with eligible households able to receive up to £30,000 worth of improvements. The fund is intended to help up to 200,000 low-income homes through local authorities.
The expression of interest window for councils wishing to take part closed on 1 December 2024, according to Domna, a firm that works with the funding schemes. That closure means that the councils now delivering the scheme are the ones that secured their place before that deadline, and Cambridgeshire’s partnership is among them.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said the government’s Warm Homes Plan ‘will roll out more upgrades across the country’, and that the Energy Secretary’s priority was ‘bringing bills down for good’. The department has also been exploring options for a single low-income scheme that would combine the existing local grant and social housing fund, with the aim of allowing local partnerships to develop bespoke plans for their areas. For households like Dewey’s, still waiting after a contractor visit, the question is how long that process will take.
