Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund

The Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 is the government’s new name for what was known as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 3. 

The fund supports social housing providers to insulate social homes, improve energy efficiency and upgrade heating systems. Together with match funding from housing associations it helps retrofit social homes and tackle fuel poverty for residents, deliver carbon savings to progress toward net zero by 2050, and grow the housing retrofit sector.

The government confirmed an initial £1.29bn of funding for the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund 2025-2028 during the 2024 Autumn Budget.

Applications to the fund closed on 25 November 2024 and successful applications were announced in March 2025 alongside confirmation of the devolved funding to Greater Manchester Combined Authority and West Midlands Combined Authority. Organisations will have until 30 September 2028 to complete works.

Low income grant fund

The Warm Homes Plan, announced in January 2026, confirmed that an additional £4.4bn of grant funding will be made available for a new low income grant scheme. This will replace the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and the Warm Homes: Local Grant after the current wave ends in 2028. The NHF is working with DESNZ on the design of this scheme.

Devolution

The devolution white paper set out an ambition to devolve the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to all established mayoral strategic authorities over the course of this Parliament, and to Liverpool City Region, the North East, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire by 2028 at the latest. Devolution continues to progress through Wave 3, and will be a significant part of the low income grant scheme.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority and West Midlands Combined Authority areas

For members in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) areas, funding will be devolved to the Combined Authorities. Therefore, for projects split across these areas and elsewhere in the country, funding must be sought from the appropriate scheme for each project. However, requests for a single funding source will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Please contact WMCA or GMCA directly with enquiries.

Who to speak to

Kate McDonald

Kate.McDonald@housing.org.uk