Warm Homes Loan Scheme UK: Rates, Caps & Eligibility (2026)

The Warm Homes Loan Scheme begins taking customers in September 2026, giving UK homeowners a government-backed route to reduced-rate borrowing for solar panels and battery storage. Unlike the means-tested Warm Homes Local Grant, this is a loan open to any owner-occupier or private landlord, regardless of income — and the published Scheme Rules set out real numbers: loan caps, an interest-rate mechanism, and who qualifies.

What is the Warm Homes Loan Scheme?

The Warm Homes Loan Scheme (WHLS) is a lender-led consumer finance scheme sitting inside the wider Warm Homes Plan. Rather than the government lending money directly, it works through participating banks and building societies: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) pays each approved lender a non-repayable capital grant of up to 20% of the loan amount, and the lender passes that saving on to the borrower as a lower interest rate. Government funding for the mechanism comes from the £5 billion Warm Homes Fund, with up to £1.7 billion earmarked for consumer loans and a further £300 million to reduce the cost of those loans, according to the published Warm Homes Plan.

An initial lender application window opened in June 2026, with DESNZ confirming an initial consumer launch phase from September 2026 in the Scheme Rules. A further lender onboarding window is expected in late 2026 for products going live in early 2027, so not every bank will offer WHLS-backed loans on day one — availability depends on which lenders have been approved.

Loan caps: £15,000 for solar, £15,000 for a battery

The Scheme Rules publish a maximum loan size per technology, based on the total installed cost:

• Solar PV: £15,000
• Electrical storage battery: £15,000
• Air/water source heat pump: £20,000 (before any Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is deducted)
• Air/air source heat pump: £10,000 (before any BUS grant is deducted)

A household combining solar and a battery can therefore borrow against both caps under the Scheme in a single application. An EV charger can also be included, but only bundled with a solar and/or battery installation — a standalone chargepoint loan is not eligible, and the installer must be OZEV-approved. If you're weighing a battery against these caps, our home battery storage buying guide covers typical system costs and sizing.

How the interest rate works

The Scheme does not fix a single advertised rate — each lender sets its own Starting Rate, and the government grant is calibrated to deliver a reduction of up to 5 percentage points off that rate for eligible loans, subject to the 20%-of-loan grant cap. In practice this means the size of the discount depends on the lender, the loan term and the loan amount, and it shrinks for longer terms or larger loans once the grant cap is reached. The grant only applies to loans with a term of three years or more; DESNZ has not published a maximum term in the Scheme Rules, though market commentary based on lender proposals points to terms of up to around ten years. Because rates are lender-set, the only way to see an actual APR is to compare live quotes once a lender's WHLS product is on the market — treat any single advertised rate you see quoted elsewhere as indicative, not guaranteed.

Who is eligible?

Per the Scheme Rules, eligible borrowers are:

• Owner-occupiers of existing domestic properties in the UK.
• Private Rented Sector (PRS) landlords, lending on a personal basis.

Crucially, DESNZ states the Scheme will not impose income-based eligibility thresholds, mandatory minimum energy-efficiency requirements, or property-type restrictions at Scheme level. That is a deliberate contrast with the means-tested Warm Homes Local Grant. Lenders still run their own normal credit and affordability checks, and may add their own criteria (for example, asking for an EPC). New-build homes, business-owned properties and leasing/subscription-style finance are excluded from this first phase.

How it compares to other solar and battery finance

The WHLS sits alongside — not instead of — existing routes:

• Warm Homes: Local Grant is means-tested (household income under £36,000, EPC D-G) and funds the work directly rather than lending it — see our Warm Homes Plan guide for the full comparison of routes.
• ECO4 is funded by energy suppliers rather than government, and is also targeted at low-income and vulnerable households.
• Green mortgages from lenders such as Nationwide bolt solar/battery finance onto a mortgage refinance — see our green mortgage guide.
• Installer 0% finance and existing green home loans are commercial products available now, without waiting for WHLS lender rollout — covered in our interest-free solar panels guide.

Because the WHLS has no income threshold, it is the first government-backed finance route open to any owner-occupier or landlord who can pass a normal credit check, not just low-income households.

How to apply

There is no direct government application. Once a lender has been approved and launched its product, homeowners apply through that lender in the normal way — as a personal loan or, in some cases, secured lending — and the lender applies the grant-reduced rate automatically if the loan and installation meet Scheme criteria. Because approvals are rolling through 2026, the practical first step is checking with your bank, building society, or MCS-certified installer which lenders are offering WHLS-backed products, since not all will be live at the September 2026 launch.