# Warm Homes Loan Guide

> Find out whether a Warm Homes loan can help fund your heat pump, solar panels or battery, what grants can sit alongside it, and your next step. An independent guide: not a government service, and not a lender.

Warm Homes Loan Guide (warmhomesloanguide.co.uk) is a free, independent guide run by Opus Leads Ltd. It is NOT a government service and is not part of, or affiliated with, the Warm Homes Loan Scheme, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) or GOV.UK. It explains how the UK Warm Homes Loan Scheme (WHLS) rules apply to a household’s planned upgrades. It is NOT a lender, NOT a credit broker and NOT financial advice. It never shows interest rates, approval odds or loan decisions. Lenders authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) make all lending decisions.

Rules file: whls_v1 (status: draft), last checked 1 October 2026.

## Key facts (from the rules file)

- What it is: Government grant paid to approved lenders to bring down the interest rate on loans for eligible low-carbon home upgrades. It is a loan, not a grant to you.
- How it works: Lenders receive a capital grant of up to 20% of the loan, which they must pass on to you as a lower nominal interest rate. Support applies to loans of three years or longer.
- Who can borrow: owner-occupiers and Private Rented Sector (PRS) landlords, on a personal basis. Tenants are not a listed borrower group.
- Where: Any domestic property in the United Kingdom.
- Eligible in our check: Solar panels (cap £15,000); Home battery (cap £15,000); Air-to-water heat pump (cap £20,000); Ground or water source heat pump (cap £35,000).
- Not eligible: Air-to-air heat pump; Insulation only; Electric car chargepoint on its own.
- Installers: Financed upgrades must be fitted by an installer certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) for that technology, using MCS-certified products. If you apply to a lender directly, it will want their quote with your application, and the installer lodges an MCS certificate when the work is finished.
- Grants: In England and Wales, a Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant can come off the price of a heat pump, and a Warm Homes loan can cover the rest. Your MCS-certified installer applies for the grant, and Ofgem then contacts you to confirm.
- Grants (Scotland): The Boiler Upgrade Scheme does not cover Scotland. Instead, if you own the home and live in it, the Home Energy Scotland grant for heat pumps (£7,500, or £9,000 for eligible rural and island homes) can sit alongside a Warm Homes loan. You apply to Home Energy Scotland yourself, and work mustn’t start until you have its written offer. Home Energy Scotland also offers an interest-free loan: ask your lender before using it for the same heat pump.
- Grants (Northern Ireland): Warm Homes loans cover the whole UK, but the Boiler Upgrade Scheme does not cover Northern Ireland and the scheme rules list no Northern Ireland grant to use alongside the loan. The loan could cover the whole installation cost, up to the scheme’s limit for each upgrade, if a lender agrees.
- Phase: The first round of lender applications opened in June 2026 and has now closed (GOV.UK announced this on 29 July 2026). The scheme rules plan an initial consumer launch phase from September 2026, but loans only become available as each approved lender launches its own products, and the government says its plans may change.
- Lenders (checked 2 October 2026): When we last checked, the government’s Warm Homes Loan Scheme pages on GOV.UK didn’t name any participating lender, and we hadn’t found any lender announcing a Warm Homes loan product. That doesn’t rule out lenders that have been approved but not yet announced. The government intends to open a second application window for lenders in late 2026, with those lenders joining in early 2027. The exact dates haven’t been confirmed. After that, the rules expect a window every year. The scheme rules say participating lenders will be listed on a Warm Homes Loan page of the government’s Home Energy Advice tool. The rules call that tool “upcoming”, and we haven’t found it live yet.
- Spotting a genuine product: Until the government has fully approved them, lenders aren’t allowed to offer Warm Homes loans, use the scheme’s branding or call themselves a Warm Homes lender. Approved lenders must use the “Funded by UK Government” branding when they advertise a Warm Homes loan and on its web page, and may also say “This product is supported by the Warm Homes Loan Scheme”. If a loan is sold as a Warm Homes loan without that branding, look the lender up on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register and contact it using the details listed there, not the ones you were given.

## Bands

- In: every chosen upgrade is an eligible measure.
- Partial: some are, some aren’t.
- Out: none are.
- Unclear: the rules don’t settle it (for example the visitor is a tenant, or the upgrade is not on the list).

An "In" band never means a loan will be offered.

## Pages

- [Check my upgrades](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/stack): six-question check.
- [What’s covered](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/truth): long-form rules in plain English.
- [The journey](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/journey): your upgrades, installer quote, lender, installation, MCS certificate.
- [Lender status](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/lenders): live / announced / unknown, with sources. No rates.
- [Request an installer quote](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/quote/request): a quote request, passed to installers certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) who cover the postcode.
- [For installers](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/ready): MCS-certified trades can register interest.
- [Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) notice](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/fca-notice)
- [About](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/about) · [Privacy](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/privacy) · [Terms](https://warmhomesloanguide.co.uk/terms)

## Official sources

- [Warm Homes Loan Scheme: Scheme Rules (September 2026), Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aabe96a2f29b3888481865c/warm-homes-loan-scheme-scheme-rules-sept-2026.pdf)
- [Warm Homes Loan Scheme: apply to participate as a lender (Phase 1), GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/warm-homes-loan-scheme-apply-to-participate-as-a-lender-phase-1)
- [Apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme)
- [Boiler Upgrade Scheme: what you can get, GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/apply-boiler-upgrade-scheme/what-you-can-get)
- [Home Energy Scotland grant and loan, Home Energy Scotland](https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/home-energy-scotland-grant-loan)
- [Microgeneration Certification Scheme: for homeowners](https://mcscertified.com/consumers/)
- [Financial Services Register, Financial Conduct Authority](https://register.fca.org.uk/s/)