Park Home Storage Heater Grants

The Affordable Warmth Scheme is part of the Government’s ECO initiative which is designed to help low income households reduce the cost of keeping warm.

This is achieved by offering Park Home Storage Heater Grants to help fund the replacement of faulty electric storage heaters. By replacing old, inefficient storage with new storage heaters, park home residents will benefit from lower heating bills.

Park Home Storage Heater Grants are available to replace all types of electric night storage heaters and are subject to a free survey. In many cases the new storage heaters are installed completely free of charge. Occasionally however, a contribution may be required from you or your landlord, if appropriate.

The Affordable Warmth Scheme website was launched in January 2013 at the same time as the Government’s ECO Affordable Warmth Scheme.

Our sole purpose is to help low income householders obtain ECO grants to reduce their heating bills. This service is free.

We work closely with a national network of ECO Approved storage heater installation companies who have been awarded Affordable Warmth Scheme funding for Park Home Storage Heater Grants.

When we have confirmed that you satisfy the Park Home Storage Heater Grants qualifying criteria we will refer your enquiry to an ECO Approved installer to process your application.

Once you have completed the Park Home Storage Heater Grants application form we will call you back to discuss your application and answer any questions you may have.

An ECO Accredited storage heater installation company will arrange to survey your heating system and double check that you qualify for Park Home Storage Heater Grants.

All storage heater installations are carried out by ECO Accredited, qualified electricians and carry a guarantee.

Park Home Storage Heater Grants are based on the type of property, how many bedrooms it has and several other factors.

Information about the rights and obligations of park home residents can be found at www.gov.uk/park-mobile-homes/your-rights-and-obligations although park home owners have different rights and responsibilities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Park Home Storage Heater Grants

Age UK estimates that there are over 100,000 older people living in residential park homes across England and Wales. Many of these residents may receive Guaranteed Pension Credit or Working Tax Credit and if they have a faulty central heating boiler they may qualify for Park Home Storage Heater Grants.

Park holiday homes are excluded from the ECO Scheme.

Living in a residential park home is a popular lifestyle choice for many older people and although park homes have advantages, they are generally less energy efficient, less well insulated and more expensive to keep warm than traditional homes.

In addition, many park home residents are on relatively fixed pension incomes and their only hope of support with heating their home is accessing the Government’s energy efficiency schemes.

New ECO Grants Assessment System: Deemed Scores

Until now, Park Home Storage Heater Grants were not high enough to cover the cost of replacing central heating boilers in residential park homes. This changed on 1st April 2017 with the introduction of the new ‘deemed scores’ system of assessing ECO Storage Heater grants.

The old system of preparing an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) to assess the amount of Park Home Storage Heater Grants discriminated against park homes, flats and other smaller properties. However, the new system takes into account the size of a property, how many bedrooms it has and crucially for park homes, how well it is insulated.

Free Electric Storage Heaters?

This does not not mean that park home residents will be entitled to free storage heaters under the new ECO Scheme but it may mean that any contribution required against the cost of new storage heaters could be a lot less than it was before 1st April 2017.

PLEASE NOTE: The ECO Scheme provides grants to remove faulty electric storage heaters and install new ones in their place. It funds replacement storage heaters NOT new heaters where they weren’t previously installed.

More information about Age UK’s campaign for warm park homes can be found HERE.