The short answer

Who qualifies for free insulation? As of October 2026, two government-backed routes to free or fully funded insulation are still open. ECO4, the supplier-funded Energy Company Obligation, runs until 31 December 2026, and the Warm Homes: Local Grant, delivered through councils in England, runs until March 2028. The Great British Insulation Scheme, which many older guides still list, closed on 31 March 2026. If you own or privately rent a home with an EPC rating of D to G and your household income is modest or you receive means-tested benefits, one of the two live schemes may pay for loft, cavity wall or solid wall insulation in full.

Which free insulation schemes are open in October 2026?

Three names dominate the search results, but only two are still live. This is where most households go wrong, so here is the honest map.

ECO4 is the main route. It is not a cash grant you apply for on a government website. It is a legal obligation on the larger energy suppliers to fund energy efficiency improvements in lower-income homes, and Ofgem administers it. The scheme covers England, Scotland and Wales, and the obligation period runs until 31 December 2026 after a nine-month extension confirmed by the government. In practice, installers stop taking new applications some weeks before the deadline because surveys and installations take time, so October is genuinely late in the window.

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the newer route. It launched on 1 April 2025 and is funded directly by the government, delivered by local councils across England. It runs until 31 March 2028 and offers up to £30,000 per home, split into two pots of up to £15,000: one for energy performance measures such as insulation and solar, and one for low-carbon heating such as heat pumps. Because delivery is council by council, availability and waiting lists vary by area.

The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) is closed. GOV.UK states plainly that the eligibility checker service has closed, that installations had to be complete by 31 March 2026, and that some energy suppliers are still dealing with existing applications. If you see an installer advertising GBIS in October 2026, they are either working through a backlog or using an old brand name. Ask them to name the scheme that would actually fund your work in writing before you agree to anything.

Who qualifies for free insulation through ECO4 before it closes?

ECO4 has two doors in, and you only need one of them to open.

Door one: the Help to Heat group. Someone in the household receives one of the qualifying benefits. These are Universal Credit, Pension Guarantee Credit or Pension Savings Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Tax Credits, and Child Benefit where household income sits below the threshold for your family size. Your home needs an EPC rating of D, E, F or G if you own it. If you rent privately, the bar is narrower: the EPC must be E, F or G, and your landlord must agree to the work in writing.

Door two: ECO4 Flex. This is the council route for households that are low income or vulnerable to the cold but do not claim a qualifying benefit. Councils publish a Statement of Intent setting out who they will refer. The most common routes are a gross household income below £31,000 a year with an EPC of D to G, or a household where someone has a health condition that a cold home would make worse, such as a cardiovascular or respiratory condition. Not every council takes part, so check your own council’s website rather than assuming.

There is one more condition that surprises people. ECO4 takes a whole-house approach: the work has to lift the property’s energy rating meaningfully. In broad terms, a home rated D or E must be able to reach band C, and a home rated F or G must reach band D. You do not need to understand the modelling; the installer’s assessor works it out. But it does mean that a single measure in an already decent home may not qualify, and that eligibility does not guarantee funding. Energy suppliers decide which projects they fund, so ask early and get any promise of full funding confirmed in writing. GOV.UK describes ECO4 as help with the cost of insulation work rather than a promise of free installation, so confirm before work starts whether you will be asked for a contribution, and Ofgem requires any household payment to be recorded.

Is the Great British Insulation Scheme still running?

No. This deserves its own section because the scheme’s name lives on in search results, council pages and installer marketing long after the scheme itself ended. The Great British Insulation Scheme ran for about three years and closed on 31 March 2026. It was broader than ECO4 while it lasted: alongside a low-income group, it had a general group for any household in an EPC D to G home in council tax bands A to D (A to E in Scotland and Wales), regardless of income, though general-group households often paid a contribution.

What matters now is what you can still do. If you applied to GBIS before it closed, your supplier or installer should still be processing your application, and GOV.UK advises contacting the energy supplier you applied to with any questions. If you never applied, GBIS is no longer an option, and the two live routes are ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant. Treat any cold call or doorstep offer of “GBIS funding” in late 2026 with scepticism, and verify the company through the council or Ofgem before sharing personal details.

Who can get the Warm Homes: Local Grant?

The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the scheme with the longest runway, and it is also the least nationally uniform, because each participating council runs its own version. The national eligibility frame is consistent, though. You must live in England, in a home you own or rent from a private landlord, with an EPC rating of D, E, F or G, and you must meet one of three income tests: a gross household income of £36,000 a year or less, receipt of certain means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit or Pension Credit, or living in a postcode the government classes as deprived. Park homes can be eligible if the property is your permanent residence and its energy performance is equivalent to band D to G.

What can it pay for? Council scheme pages list wall, loft and floor insulation, air or ground source heat pumps, solar PV, smart heating controls, draught-proofing, double glazing, ventilation and damp prevention measures, all chosen after a home survey using a fabric-first approach. It cannot fund a new gas boiler: the grant prioritises efficient heating over fossil fuel boilers. One detail landlords should know: the grant can fully fund a first property but usually requires a 50 percent landlord contribution for additional properties.

Two practical warnings come straight from how councils are running it. First, funding is limited and some councils have already paused new applications because of demand, operating waiting lists instead, so check your own council’s current position rather than assuming the national scheme is open everywhere. Second, councils are actively writing to eligible households. In October 2026, Hackney Council and the Greater London Authority began a phased outreach to more than 3,000 low-income households in privately owned homes, sending letters in batches and using criteria that include household savings under £25,000 alongside the usual income and EPC tests. If a letter arrives, check that it genuinely comes from your council before responding, and never hand bank details to a cold caller claiming to be from the scheme.

What types of insulation do these schemes cover?

Both live schemes can fund the insulation measures that make the biggest difference to heat loss, subject to a survey confirming your home is suitable.

Loft insulation is the cheapest and most common measure: topping up thin or missing loft insulation to the recommended depth. Cavity wall insulation suits homes built roughly between the 1920s and 1990s with unfilled cavity walls, pumped in through small drilled holes. Solid wall insulation, internal or external, is for older homes with solid brick or stone walls, typically pre-1920s, and it is the most expensive measure, which is exactly why grant funding matters most for it. ECO4 can also cover underfloor insulation, flat roof insulation and room-in-roof insulation where the assessment supports them, and GOV.UK notes that there have been quality problems with some solid wall insulation fitted under ECO schemes in the past, so use an accredited installer and keep all paperwork.

One more thing worth knowing before the survey: insulation only works as part of a ventilated home. Councils delivering the Warm Homes: Local Grant describe a fabric-first approach that can include trickle vents and extractor fans alongside insulation, because a better-sealed home still needs controlled ventilation to avoid condensation and damp. If you are already seeing window condensation as the cold nights arrive, read our guide to stopping condensation on windows alongside any grant application.

For a sense of what insulation is worth to your bills once installed, see our breakdown of home insulation savings and what the October 2026 energy price cap rise means for bills. And since every one of these schemes starts from your EPC rating, it is worth understanding how the certificate itself is changing: our explainer on the new EPC ratings walks through the multi-metric system.

How do I apply for free insulation, step by step?

The application route depends on the scheme, and mixing them up is the most common reason people stall.

For ECO4, you do not apply to the government. Contact your energy supplier directly, or an accredited installer working with the obligated suppliers, and ask for an ECO4 eligibility check. Alternatively, contact your council to ask whether it takes part in ECO4 Flex and how it refers households. The installer will verify benefits with the DWP, arrange a property survey, and confirm in writing which measures are funded and whether you owe anything. Allow plenty of time: surveys, approvals and installation scheduling can take weeks, and the scheme closes on 31 December 2026.

For the Warm Homes: Local Grant, start with your council. Search your council’s website for the scheme name, or use the GOV.UK service to find your local authority’s page. Expect an eligibility check, then a home survey, then a tailored package of measures installed by a TrustMark-registered contractor arranged by the council. You will not receive cash: the council or its delivery partner pays for approved work directly. Private tenants need their landlord’s agreement before work goes ahead.

If you are considering a heat pump rather than insulation alone, note that a separate grant exists: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers £7,500 towards a heat pump, rising to £9,000 for off-gas-grid oil and LPG homes until 31 March 2027. Our guide to claiming the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant explains the installer-led application. The Warm Homes: Local Grant can also fund a heat pump from its low-carbon heating pot, but the same measure cannot be double-funded, so declare any other grant you have used.

Finally, a word on scams, because grant schemes attract them. Real schemes never ask you to pay an application fee, never demand bank details on a cold call, and never pressure you to sign on the doorstep. Check installers against TrustMark, confirm any council letter through the council’s published phone number rather than a number on the letter, and report suspicious approaches to Citizens Advice or Action Fraud. The deepest value on this page is the eligibility detail above; use it, and you will know more than most cold callers.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get free loft insulation in 2026?

Yes, if you qualify. ECO4 can fully fund loft insulation for eligible households until 31 December 2026, and the Warm Homes: Local Grant can fund it for eligible households in England until March 2028. Both require an EPC rating of D to G and a successful eligibility check; neither is open to every household.

Is the Great British Insulation Scheme still open?

No. The Great British Insulation Scheme closed on 31 March 2026, and the GOV.UK eligibility checker has been switched off. Some energy suppliers are still processing applications made before closure, so contact the supplier you applied to if you have an existing application. New applicants should look at ECO4 or the Warm Homes: Local Grant instead.

Do I need to be on benefits to get free insulation?

Not necessarily. ECO4’s main route is for households receiving means-tested benefits, but the ECO4 Flex route lets councils refer low-income or vulnerable households with no benefit claim, often with a household income below £31,000. The Warm Homes: Local Grant’s main route is a household income of £36,000 or less with no benefit requirement at all.

Can private tenants get free insulation?

Who qualifies for free insulation when renting privately? Yes, with landlord agreement. ECO4 covers private rented homes rated EPC E to G where the landlord consents to the work. The Warm Homes: Local Grant covers privately rented homes rated D to G in England, again with landlord consent, and tenants are not expected to contribute to costs.

Will I have to pay anything towards the work?

Often nothing, but confirm in writing. ECO4 work is usually fully funded for qualifying households, though you can be asked for a contribution and Ofgem requires any household payment to be recorded. The Warm Homes: Local Grant is fully funded for eligible owner-occupiers on low incomes; private landlords may need to contribute 50 percent for additional properties beyond their first.

What should I do if someone knocks on my door offering free insulation?

Do not sign anything on the doorstep. Ask which named scheme would fund the work, check the company on TrustMark, and verify any council connection through your council’s published contact details. Legitimate schemes never charge application fees or demand bank details during a cold call.