Is there a government grant for solar panels?

Where public money for home solar actually goes

Public money for solar panels on homes reaches households in two ways in 2026, and both are aimed at people on lower incomes. In England, Warm Homes: Local Grant is run by councils for privately owned homes with an EPC rating of D to G and a household income usually of £36,000 or less, or with an eligible postcode or benefit. Solar panels are one of the measures a council can fund. In Wales, Warm Homes Nest offers packages to low-income owners and private tenants that can include rooftop solar.

Neither is a voucher you take to the installer of your choice. The council, or the Nest team, organises the assessment and pays its own contractors. That is the main practical difference between a genuine scheme and the "grant" in an advert: in a genuine scheme you deal with a public body first, and the installer is appointed by it.

Scotland's Home Energy Scotland scheme funded solar panels up to June 2024. It now supports only hybrid PV-T panels, by loan, and does not list batteries. In Northern Ireland, nidirect names no financial support for people generating their own electricity beyond the zero VAT rate. The funding by nation page has the detail for each.

Why the "government grant" idea lingers

Part of the confusion is history. Between 2010 and 2019 the Feed-in Tariff paid households for every unit their panels generated, and many people remember it as a government solar scheme. It closed to new applicants in 2019. Since 1 January 2020 the SEG has applied to new installations instead, and it pays only for electricity exported to the grid, at a rate each supplier sets.

The other part is marketing. While ECO4, the energy suppliers' obligation, was funding packages for some low-income homes, a lot of advertising used the words "government" and "free" loosely; our page on offers of panels at no cost goes through how to test them. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints against firms that presented ECO4 offers as if run by GOV.UK, with crown imagery, and against a "Government Solar Checker" site that implied government funding. ECO4 ends on 31 December 2026 with no successor obligation, but the language it left behind is still in circulation.

A third part is wishful thinking about the Warm Homes Plan. The plan is large, but its help for households that can pay is in loans.

What the Warm Homes Plan decided

The Warm Homes Plan, published on 21 January 2026, is the government's programme for home energy to 2030. It commits just under £15 billion in total, with more than £5 billion for low-income households. The House of Commons Library's summary is the clearest account of its shape: help for ordinary households comes mainly as loans, and grants are targeted at those who would otherwise struggle.

The plan also sets up a change in delivery. From 2027/28, Warm Homes: Local Grant and the Social Housing Fund are due to merge into one area-based low-income scheme. So the council route that can include solar today is expected to carry on in a new form, but there is no sign of a grant for households that can pay. The only able-to-pay grant that continues is the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and it pays for heat pumps and biomass boilers only.

If you read a headline about "billions for solar", that is where the money is going: to council-led work on lower-income homes, to loans, and to social housing.

Four questions that settle whether a "grant" is real

1. What is the scheme's official name? A real scheme has one, and you can find it on GOV.UK, gov.wales, homeenergyscotland.org or nidirect. "The government solar grant" is not a name.
2. Who decides eligibility? In genuine schemes, a council or scheme team does, against published conditions such as income, benefits and EPC rating. If a salesperson says you qualify before anyone has checked those, be careful.
3. Who pays the installer? In Warm Homes: Local Grant, the council pays its own contractors. If the installer is asking you for money, ask exactly what the grant covers and in writing.
4. Is anything being repaid? Loans, finance agreements and roof-rental deals are not grants, however they are described.

Since April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has banned outright any false claim that a trader or offer is approved by a public body. The Competition and Markets Authority can fine firms up to 10% of global turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater. See spotting fake grant offers.