Insulation Grants Northern Ireland 2026

Insulation Grants in Northern Ireland: Less Than GB, But Affordable Warmth Is Genuinely Good

Northern Ireland doesn't have access to the main GB scheme: ECO4 covers England, Scotland and Wales only. (The Great British Insulation Scheme didn't cover NI either, though that's academic now, because it closed on 31 March 2026 everywhere.) That's a real limitation, and it means NI homeowners have fewer options than their counterparts in England, Scotland or Wales.

But for households that do qualify for the Affordable Warmth scheme, the support is quite comprehensive. And for everyone else, NISEP provides some energy company-funded routes. Here's the full picture, taken off the Housing Executive's published measure list rather than from the summaries you'll find elsewhere.

Affordable Warmth: The Main Scheme for Lower Incomes

Affordable Warmth is administered by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and is the primary source of free insulation for lower-income homeowners and private renters in NI. Grant aid runs to £7,500, or up to £10,000 where a solid wall home needs insulation.

What Affordable Warmth can fund

The Housing Executive publishes the measures in four priority groups, and it takes a whole-house approach: you complete them in order, and if you decline one you lose that part of the grant rather than being able to spend it elsewhere.

• Priority 1, insulation, ventilation and draught-proofing: loft insulation installed or topped up to 300mm, roof, loft and eaves ventilation, a hot water cylinder jacket, cavity wall insulation where the property suits it, draught proofing to doors and windows, and removal and replacement of ineffective cavity wall insulation
• Priority 2, heating: replacing solid fuel, LPG or Economy 7 with natural gas or oil central heating; converting Economy 7 to high-efficiency electric storage where gas and oil aren't available; and boiler replacement or system upgrade where the boiler is at least 15 years old and the householder is over 65, has a child getting Child Benefit or Kinship payments, or receives DLA, PIP or Attendance Allowance
• Priority 3, windows: replacing single glazed windows
• Priority 4, solid wall measures: solid wall insulation, detached properties only, and only after the cheaper measures are done

Two corrections to what a lot of pages tell you, this one included until today. Heat pumps are not on that list at any priority level, and neither are heating controls or thermostats as a standalone measure. If you've read that Affordable Warmth can fund a heat pump, it can't. Its answer to a failed heating system in 2026 is still a new oil or gas boiler.

Caveats aside, this is a real package. This isn't a "we'll top up your loft insulation" offering, and for qualifying households Affordable Warmth can genuinely transform a draughty, expensive-to-heat home. Grants are subject to the availability of funding.

Affordable Warmth Eligibility

The £23,000 income threshold is lower than the equivalent in Scotland (no income cap for Warmer Homes Scotland, but it does require a passport benefit) and stricter than the means-tested benefit criteria used in England and Wales. That means fewer NI households qualify. It's a genuine policy gap.

One practical correction: don't ring the Housing Executive switchboard. NIHE routes every Affordable Warmth applicant through the NI Energy Advice Service on 0800 111 44 55 (or NIenergyadvice@nihe.gov.uk). They check you meet the entry requirements and send out the application form, which you return to your local Grant Office with proof of ownership or tenancy, residence and income.

NISEP: Energy Company Obligation for NI

NISEP (Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme) is NI's nearest equivalent to ECO4, overseen by the Utility Regulator, funded by a levy on electricity bills, and delivered on the ground by a set of approved Scheme Managers (not by your retail electricity supplier directly).

NISEP is less well-publicised than Affordable Warmth, and the available measures vary year to year depending on which Scheme Managers are active. The bit that trips people up: you don't apply through your electricity supplier. You find a scheme on the Utility Regulator's current List of Schemes, check you're eligible, and contact that Scheme Manager directly on the number they publish. Your retail supplier can't process it for you. If that feels like hard work, call the NI Energy Advice service on 0800 111 44 55 and ask them to point you at one.

Heads-Up: A New NI Framework Is Coming

The Department for Communities is developing the Warm Healthy Homes Fund as its main fuel poverty and energy efficiency intervention for private sector homes, owner-occupied and privately rented. DfC says it will replace the Affordable Warmth Scheme from April 2027, taking a whole-house, fabric-first approach. The public consultation closed on 19 August 2026 and final development and implementation are scheduled from April 2027.

What that means in practice: if your insulation work isn't urgent and you're on a low income, it may be worth seeing what lands in April 2027 before committing. If your heating has actually failed, don't wait, because the scheme rules aren't published yet and nobody can tell you today what the new fund will cover.

Housing Executive Grants for Tenants

If you're a Housing Executive tenant (Northern Ireland's social housing provider), insulation improvements are generally the Housing Executive's responsibility rather than yours. Raise any insulation or draughting issues with your local Housing Executive office. They have maintenance and improvement programmes that can address these.

Private landlords in NI can sometimes access grants to improve the energy efficiency of their rental properties, though the landscape here is more limited.

What GB Schemes Are Missing in NI

For context, here's what's available in Great Britain that NI doesn't have equivalent access to:

The Financial Case for Insulating in NI

Even without the GB schemes, insulation makes strong financial sense in NI, arguably more so than in much of GB, because so many NI homes heat with oil.

Better insulation means your oil boiler runs less, and oil heat in NI costs about 12.91p per kWh once you account for an 85% seasonal boiler efficiency (113.52p/litre UK average, 10.35 kWh per litre). On a detached house needing 20,000 kWh of heat a year, that's roughly £2,580 of oil. Cut the demand by a fifth and you save around £515 a year. Cut it by a third and it's closer to £850.

Against that, the Energy Saving Trust puts cavity wall insulation at around £1,000 in Northern Ireland and insulating a bare loft to 270mm at around £1,100, saving about £190 a year on a typical semi. So a loft pays back in roughly six years and a cavity fill in about five, and both are faster on a big detached house on oil than those semi figures suggest. Not the two-year payback you'll see quoted, but a good deal better than most things you can do to a house.

What to Do Next

1. Check Affordable Warmth first: if your gross household income is below £23,000, call the NI Energy Advice Service on 0800 111 44 55. That's the route NIHE actually uses, not the Housing Executive switchboard. It's worth 10 minutes to find out.
2. Check this year's NISEP list on the Utility Regulator's site and contact the Scheme Manager directly. Your electricity supplier can't process it for you, whatever you've read elsewhere.
3. If you're a Housing Executive tenant, raise insulation issues with your housing officer.
4. If you don't qualify for any scheme, get quotes from reputable installers and do the payback sum yourself. On Energy Saving Trust figures, cavity wall at around £1,000 and a bare loft at around £1,100 in NI pay back in roughly five to six years on a typical semi, and faster on a large detached house heated by oil.

The funding landscape in NI genuinely needs improvement, and it's worth making your views known to your MLA. In the meantime, don't let the lack of GB-equivalent schemes stop you from exploring what is available. Affordable Warmth in particular is worth checking even if you're not sure you qualify.