Warm Homes Plan to be run locally, government confirms

The government is planning to hand control of Warm Homes Plan funding to mayors, local authorities and communities rather than running it centrally from Whitehall, according to Energy Live News.

What was announced

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the new approach, badged the "Great Home Upgrade", would be delivered "postcode-by-postcode, street-by-street, community-by-community," according to Energy Live News. The outlet reports that the programme is intended to upgrade homes, renew housing estates, train people for jobs in the sector, and support local supply chains, with decisions made closer to the areas receiving the work rather than centrally.

Fahnbulleh also argued that the country needs more home-grown clean energy to deal with high bills and climate change, and said "we have a duty to protect our communities," pushing back against MPs who have questioned the UK's net zero commitments, Energy Live News reported.

No new funding total, start date or local allocation formula was given in the announcement as reported. What we do know, from the Warm Homes Plan published in January 2026, is that it covers £15bn of spending to 2030, including grants for low-income households and low- or zero-interest loans that are being phased in. Devolving delivery doesn't change that headline figure — it changes who decides how the money reaches individual streets and homes.

What it means if you're planning work now

For homeowners, the practical schemes you'd actually apply to haven't changed this week. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme still offers £7,500 off an air source or ground source heat pump in England and Wales, provided you use an MCS-certified installer; in Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland grant offers up to £7,500 plus an optional £7,500 interest-free loan. Energy-saving materials — heat pumps, insulation and solar panels among them — still qualify for 0% VAT on installation until 31 March 2027.

A typical Air source heat pump comes in around £12,900, against a £10,000 – £16,700 range depending on house size and system spec — before any Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted. Local delivery, if and when it starts, is more likely to affect how grants and loans are administered and targeted (for example, towards specific streets or low-income households) than to change that underlying cost.

Insulation is the other obvious beneficiary of a "street-by-street" approach, since whole-street retrofit is far easier to organise locally than nationally. A full External wall insulation job currently costs around £26,000, with the typical range sitting at £20,200 – £33,700; 0% VAT already applies to the installation of the insulation itself. If devolved delivery does end up targeting whole terraces or estates for coordinated upgrades, as the announcement suggests it might, it could in time make bulk-scheduled insulation and heat pump work cheaper to deliver than one-off jobs — but that would depend on how any local scheme is designed, which hasn't been published yet.

Solar remains a good value add-on to any of this: a typical Solar panels installation runs around £12,500, within a £9,750 – £16,300 range, and also qualifies for 0% VAT.

Our take

We calculate all of these figures from labour hours multiplied by local trade rates plus materials, cross-checked against market prices and real quotes, so they reflect what installers are actually charging now rather than any funding announcement. Devolving the Warm Homes Plan is a change to who runs the money, not (as far as reported) a change to the amounts on offer or the rules for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and 0% VAT. We'll update our guides if and when a local delivery scheme is actually published with its own eligibility rules.

In the meantime, if you've already got quotes in hand for a heat pump, insulation or solar job, it's worth checking them against current typical costs with our "is my quote fair" tool before committing, rather than waiting on a local scheme that doesn't exist yet in any detail.