warm homes plan funding in Liverpool

Serving Liverpool and the wider Merseyside area, including Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey.

Warm Homes Plan funding for Liverpool households

Liverpool has around 498,000 residents and a housing stock that tells the story of the city: grand Victorian and Georgian terraces in Toxteth, Anfield and Kensington, dense inner-city housing close to the docks, and inter-war and post-war estates across the outer wards. A large share is EPC band D or worse, often with solid walls and old heating, and inner Liverpool has some of the highest fuel-poverty rates in the North West. That makes the city a clear priority for the Warm Homes Plan. Liverpool households can access every live scheme, ECO4, the Great British Insulation Scheme, the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the council-delivered Warm Homes: Local Grant, all under the government’s flagship Warm Homes Plan, with around £15 billion to upgrade up to five million homes by 2030.

Liverpool City Council has set a 2030 net zero target, and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority operates a climate action plan and a Net Zero programme that has supported retrofit and SME decarbonisation across Merseyside. The region’s history of regeneration funding means there is an established route to getting cold homes upgraded. The challenge for residents is the same as everywhere: ECO4 and GBIS both close during 2026, so knowing which scheme is still open is what matters, and this hub keeps that current.

Which Liverpool homes qualify

Liverpool’s inner wards have high benefit take-up alongside more comfortable owner-occupier suburbs in Allerton, Woolton and Mossley Hill, and the schemes route differently.

If you own or rent privately, you are on a means-tested benefit (Universal Credit, Pension Credit, income-based JSA or ESA, Income Support, Housing Benefit or Tax Credits), and your EPC is D to G, ECO4 can fund a whole-house package at no cost. In Toxteth, Everton, Kensington and Anfield, where a lot of stock is band D solid-wall terraced housing, ECO4 has done most of the work. It is fabric-first: insulation before heating, often finishing with an air source heat pump.

If you are not on benefits but your home is in Council Tax bands A to D with an EPC of D or below, the Great British Insulation Scheme General Group can fund a single insulation measure. Liverpool has a very high proportion of band A and B homes, so a large number of working households qualify on Council Tax band and EPC alone.

If you own your home and want to replace a gas boiler, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards a heat pump regardless of income. Semis and detached homes in Woolton, Childwall and Allerton usually have the garden space to site an air source heat pump under MCS 020.

A real Liverpool scenario

Take a Victorian terrace in Toxteth (L8), owner-occupied by a household on Universal Credit, EPC band E, with solid walls and an old back-boiler. The solid walls ruled out cheap cavity insulation, and the household assumed nothing could be done. Under ECO4, a PAS 2035 retrofit assessor specified internal wall insulation, a loft top-up and a new air source heat pump, all bundled as a fully funded package and lodged with TrustMark before the March 2026 deadline. The EPC moved from E to C and the long-standing damp on the front bay cleared. Compare that with a working couple in a band A terrace in Walton who got loft insulation through GBIS General Group, and a homeowner in Woolton who used the £7,500 grant towards an air source heat pump.

Liverpool City Council and the Warm Homes: Local Grant

The Warm Homes: Local Grant in Liverpool is delivered by Liverpool City Council, not by energy suppliers. It targets lower-income owner-occupiers and private renters in England with EPC band D to G homes, typically gross household income under £36,000 (postcode or qualifying-benefit routes can override) and savings under £16,000, funding an insulation plus low-carbon heating package at no cost. Liverpool has delivered earlier rounds of local retrofit funding through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, so the Local Grant is an active route worth checking with the council directly. Always confirm current criteria on the gov.uk apply page and the council’s own pages.

The same schemes reach the wider area, Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey, St Helens and Crosby, where many people who work in Liverpool live. Private renters across all of these can access ECO4, GBIS and the Local Grant with landlord consent.

Landlords and businesses in Liverpool

Liverpool has a large private rented sector, including student housing around the universities in Kensington, Smithdown Road and the city fringe. Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards currently require EPC E minimum to let, with a proposed tightening towards EPC C for domestic lettings, so landlords have a strong reason to insulate now while tenant-occupied homes can still draw on the schemes. Commercial property owners do not get the domestic grants, but solar PV, heat pumps and battery storage qualify for 100% Annual Investment Allowance under capital allowances, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers small businesses replacing a fossil-fuel system. A typical Liverpool SME spends around £40,000 a year on energy, so the tax-relief route usually pays off faster than expected.

Postcodes covered across Liverpool

We cover every Liverpool postcode district:

• City centre and inner: L1 to L3 (centre, waterfront), L5 to L8 (Everton, Kensington, Edge Hill, Toxteth)
• North Liverpool: L4 (Anfield, Walton), L9 to L11 (Aintree, Fazakerley, Croxteth)
• East Liverpool: L12 to L16 (West Derby, Dovecot, Broadgreen, Childwall)
• South Liverpool: L17 to L19 (Aigburth, Mossley Hill, Allerton, Garston), L24 to L25 (Speke, Woolton, Hunts Cross)

Wherever you live in the city, the first step is a free eligibility check across all four routes.

Next steps for Liverpool homes

If your Liverpool home is cold, damp or expensive to heat, one of these schemes very likely fits. We run you through ECO4, GBIS, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Warm Homes: Local Grant in two minutes, point you to the official gov.uk checker, and connect you with an MCS-certified, TrustMark-registered installer. No doorstep sales, no upfront payment. Start with our guide to the cost of measures, the full grants and funding breakdown, or request a callback.