The Green Homes Grant Scheme and External Wall Insulation
In July 2020, the UK Government announced a new green homes grant scheme, which is designed to give homeowners and landlords up to £5,000 of funding towards energy saving measures for their properties in England. The £2 billion scheme launched on the 30th September 2020, with external wall insulation being one of the main energy saving measures that home occupiers will be able to take-up to significantly improve the thermal comfort of homes.
Insulation measures are the most effective way of increasing the energy efficiency of your property. Whether this is loft, cavity or solid wall insulation. For example, installing 90mm of insulation on the external walls of your property can reduce your heating bill by 30%!
To qualify for the grant of up to £5,000 the improver must also contribute up to one third of the final contract costs for the works, otherwise it maybe deemed invalid.
What happens if I cannot afford to make a personal contribution to the cost of the works?
If you cannot afford to make a contribution, the Government is giving up to £10,000 total support for home owners who are in the low-income group. You can then whole project fully funded and you do not need to make a personal contribution.
You can qualify for the Green Home Grants low-income scheme (up to £10,000 support) if you receive at least one of the following benefits:
- Income based Jobseekers allowance (JSA)
- Income based Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support (IS)
- Pension Guarantee Credit
- Working Tax Credit (WTC)
- Child Tax Credits (CTC)
- Universal Credit (UC)
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
- Contribution based Jobseekers allowance (JSA)
- Contribution based Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)
- Housing benefit
If you don’t receive any of these benefits then the total support will be capped at £5,000.
Green Homes Grant is now live and how does it work?
The Government launched the Green Homes Grant scheme in September. In summary here are the qualification criteria as listed on the www.Gov.co.uk website:
- you need to reside in England;
- be a homeowner (including long-leaseholders and shared ownership);
- own a park home on a residential site (including Gypsy & Traveller sites);
- you could be a residential landlord in the private or social rented sector (including local authorities and housing associations)
This scheme does not cover new build homes. It is only available to the retrofit sector.
To qualify for home improvements under this scheme you must install at least one primary measure, and any unused funds can then be used to part fund either a secondary or another primary measure. External wall insulation is a primary measure, therefore provided it is selected for the home improvement to improver should receive this funding.
For additional reading on the Green Homes Grant, this can be found on the Simple Energy Advice website found here.
Additional information regarding insulation measures
According to the scheme rules installing external solid wall insulation to a wall, you must insulate all suitable space on that wall elevation. The Government advises all the external walls to be insulated (not a requirement), but in practice you can choose 2 walls, less or more.
If you have a semi-detached for example and you have already insulated one or two of the walls, then you can utilise the grant to insulate the final wall. You cannot use the grant to remove and replace existing wall insulation like cavity wall insulation, but you can use the excess funds to install other insulation measures like loft or floor insulation.
EWI Store products are compliant with the Green Homes Grant scheme
It is understood, that in order to apply for the Green Homes Grant scheme, approved applicators and products will need to be used. The good news is that our external wall insulation systems are BBA approved and therefore ready for use in the scheme. Likewise we also have nationwide network of approved installers who will be able to do the works and access the £5,000 grant.
It is worth mentioning that the scheme is open to anyone that owns a home (including park home owners) – however the property must be based in England to be eligbile. The Grant is non-means-tested, so provided you own the property you are good to apply!
EWI Pro External Wall Insulation Systems
EWI Store offer a wide range of EWI Pro External Wall Insulation Systems. EWI Pro are a system designer and manufacturer, prodcuing specialist external insulation and thin coat render systems.
EWI Pro Insulation Systems has two systems that are certified to the BBA, which are the EPS EWI System and the Mineral Wool EWI System. The BBA is the British Board of agreement and certifies the products and systems, so they are “fit-for-purpose” for the retrofit improvements that are being recommended.
In their testing of the systems, the BBA carries out a set of robust tests that examine the products for their longevity, fire resistance, water penetration and many more. All the products and systems are rigorously tested in the respective factories that produce them so that the quality control in maintained at all times.
Basically, you can rest assured that if you do decide to use the EWI Pro family of products for your next project, they are some of the best available on the market!
How Do I Apply?
Step 1: Go to the Simple Energy Advice (SEA) website to check what low carbon or energy efficiency heat improvements can be made to your home.
Step 2: Contact us at EWI Store so that we can find you a local accredited installer and give you price quotes.
Step 3: Apply for the voucher on the Government website
Contact us for more information
CALL US:
Chessington Branch: 02033 974067
Aylesbury Branch: 01296 821067
EMAIL US:
Sales Enquiries: Sales@ewistore.co.uk
Technical Enquiries: Technical@ewistore.co.uk
Are you an Installer?
Check out our Green Homes Grant Scheme blog for Installers.
