Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available from the Government’s ECO Scheme.

To qualify, your home must have solid external brick or stone walls AND you must receive one of the following qualifying benefits or qualify under ECO Flex rules:

• Pension Credit – Guarantee Credit
• Pension Credit – Savings Credit

(Over one million pensioners are entitled to Pension Credit but don’t claim it. To check whether you are eligible click HERE go to the Government website.)

• Universal Credit
• Child Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit
• Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Income-Based Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Income Support
• Child Benefit (subject to maximum household income thresholds)
• Housing Benefit

ECO Flex Rules allow local councils to recommend that a householder qualifies for a grant without the need to receive one of the qualifying benefits above.

If your home has cavity walls, cavity wall insulation can be installed fairly easily. However, if your home has solid brick external walls or solid stone external walls the task of insulating them is more difficult and hence, more expensive.

Solid external walls can either be insulated on the outside (External Wall Insulation) or on the inside (Internal Wall Insulation).

Grants are available to help install both External Wall Insulation and Internal Wall Insulation.

Internal wall insulation is generally installed by fitting rigid insulation boards to the inside of the external walls of your home. Alternatively, a stud wall can be constructed and filled in with insulation material such as mineral wool fibre.

• Internal Wall Insulation is generally less expensive to install than external wall insulation.
• Internal Wall Insulation will slightly reduce the floor area of any rooms in which it is installed (the thickness of the insulation is around 100 mm).
• Internal Wall Insulation can be done room by room.
• Installing Internal Wall Insulation requires removing skirting boards, door frames and external fittings then re-fitting new ones afterwards.
• If your home suffers from problems with penetrating or rising damp, these must be remedied before internal wall insulation can be installed.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available to help install Internal Wall Insulation.

External wall insulation involves fixing a layer of insulation material to the external surface of your home’s walls. This is then covered with a special type of render or cladding. The finished surface can be smooth, textured, painted, tiled, panelled, pebble-dashed, or finished with brick slips.

• External wall insulation can be installed without disruption to the inside of your home and does not reduce the floor area of your home
• External wall insulation will change the appearance of the outer walls of your home. Something to consider if your home has feature stone walls.
• External wall insulation will improve the weatherproofing and sound resistance of your home
• External wall insulation can increase the lifespan of your walls by protecting the external brickwork.
• External wall insulation can reduce condensation on internal walls and can help prevent damp (but it will not solve rising or penetration damp).
• External wall insulation may need planning permission.
• External wall insulation requires good access to the outer walls of your home.
• External wall insulation is not recommended if the outer walls of your home are structurally unsound.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available to help install External Wall Insulation.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available from the Affordable Warmth Scheme section of the Government’s ECO4 Scheme.

An ECO levy is placed on every household’s electricity bill with the money fed into the ECO Fund. Money from this fund is awarded as grants to help install new heating systems and insulation in homes.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available under this scheme for householders who receive one of the qualifying benefits.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants help to install internal and external wall insulation to keep your home warmer in the winter by reducing heat loss.

According to Government statistics, around 65% of home with cavity walls are insulated. However, only 8% of the UK’s 8.5 million homes with solid walls have any insulation. Many of these homes were constructed before the 1920s before insulating homes was considered important.

According to the Energy Saving Trust, installing solid wall insulation should save around £260 per year on the annual heating bills of a typical 3 bedroom semi-detached home. However, installing internal wall insulation would cost around £7,500 and installing external wall insulation would cost around £13,000.

Help for low income households in the form of Solid Wall Insulation Grants is vital to minimise heat loss, cut bills and reduce carbon emissions.

Solid Wall Insulation Grants are available to help install both External Wall Insulation and Internal Wall Insulation.