Home Upgrade Grant Frequently Asked Questions

Once you have registered your interest in the scheme, an appointment will be made to have an energy survey carried out on your home. This will be carried out by a qualified assessor. The purpose of the survey is to confirm the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of your home.

This depends on whether you live in the property or not.

Funding has been allocated to Reading residents from central government. Greater South East Net Zero Hub (appointed by the government to manage the scheme in Reading) will pay AgilityEco directly for works carried out to your property.

If you are an owner-occupier you don’t have to pay for this and you will not be asked for any financial contribution towards the scheme or to pay any of the money spent back. You will not be asked to provide any bank account details when applying. If you are a private landlord you are also eligible for the scheme, however you will be required to contribute one third towards the cost of the work.

Wall, loft insulation, as well as heating technologies with low carbon emissions such as Air Source Heat Pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are included in the scheme.

Heating technologies that use fossil-fuels such as mains gas, LPG, oil and coal are excluded.

AgilityEco have been assigned to deliver the Home Upgrade Grant 2 for Reading residents.

This is dependent on the work you have agreed to be carried out on your home. For example, the installation of low energy lighting could take a few hours whilst the average time for the installation of external wall insulation is between 7-10 days. The energy survey which is carried out will provide you with a list of the measures that can offered as part of this scheme. You are able to review and confirm which work you would like to be completed following the results of the survey.

No, you will not be required to move out whilst the work is carried out. AgilityEco will work with you to help minimise the disruption that will occur from the work carried out to your home.

The funding has been allocated to Reading residents from central government.

AgilityEco have been assigned to carry out the Home Upgrade Grant 2 for Reading. You can register your interest and apply for the grant on the Home Upgrade Grant website.

You can also phone AgilityEco on 0800 107 8883.

To qualify for the Home Upgrade Grant 2, your home’s energy rating needs to be below a certain threshold. A qualified energy assessor will carry out a survey to assess your home’s energy performance and provide you with an accurate rating of the energy efficiency of your home. The survey will also provide you with a report highlighting the energy savings measures that can be offered to you as part of this scheme.

No, if you are an owner-occupier. The Greater South East Net Zero Hub (appointed by government to manage the scheme for Reading) will pay AgilityEco directly for all works carried out to your property, including the survey. If you are a private landlord a charge may be made for an upfront survey.

Following the energy survey a package of works will be provided to you, offering the best combination of carbon emission and energy bill savings, based on the grant funding available.

£36,000 income is calculated as your annual income before tax or any other deductions. Please note, if there are two or more adults within the household, your combined income must be less than £36,000 before tax or any other deductions.

When a survey is carried out on your home to find out whether it qualifies for the scheme, we will also ask you for evidence of the income of all adults in the home. This may include pay slips, P60s, benefit letters (if applicable) or bank statements if no other option is available. We may also need a copy of your mortgage statement (or tenancy agreement) and your council tax bill. In specific cases open banking may be used to assess eligibility.

If you can’t find the necessary evidence that you qualify for the scheme during the survey appointment, we will give you time to provide these documents to us after the survey. You will need to provide the evidence that you qualify before your application can progress any further. In some cases, there may be other ways we can confirm that you qualify. For example, we could request your permission for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to confirm your benefits to us.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) were first introduced in the UK in 2007 to provide potential buyers and tenants with an indication of the energy efficiency of a property, along with information about the property’s typical energy costs and options to reduce energy use and make the property more energy efficient.

The government holds a list of all EPCs. You can access them by visiting the Find an energy performance certificate (EPC) web page and searching your postcode.

An Energy Performance Certificate will be produced as part of the survey to confirm that your property is eligible for this scheme.

Yes. If you are a landlord, who has 4 or less properties, you will be able to apply. You will need to contribute at least one third of the cost of the upgrades in addition to the funding provided. This will be agreed before work begins.

No, the grant is only for occupied homes, and is awarded based on the eligibility of the tenant living in the property.

The exact amount available is dependent on the EPC of the home and the wall type of your property. Please refer to the tables below for details of the funding available:

Property type Funding for energy efficiency measures Additional funding if clean heating system installed Flat

Cavity wall: £3,000

Solid wall: £9,000

Both wall types: £9,000 Mid-terrace

Cavity wall: £8,000

Solid wall: £20,000

Both wall types: £14,000 End of terrace/semi/detached

Cavity wall: £12,000

Solid wall: £24,000

Both wall types: £14,000

Private rented properties

Property type	Cavity wall	Solid wall
Flat	Grant: £2,000 Landlord contribution: £1,000 Total: £3,000	Grant: £6,000 Landlord contribution: £3,000 Total: £9,000
Mid-terrace	Grant: £5,333 Landlord contribution: £2,667 Total: £8,000	Grant: £10,000 Landlord contribution: £5,000 Total: £15,000
End of terrace/semi/detached	Grant: £8,000 Landlord contribution: £4,000 Total: £12,000	Grant: £16,000 Landlord contribution: £8,000 Total: £24,000

If overall costs exceed those for the various combinations of EPC ratings and heating fuel, additional contributions by the landlord will be required.

For additional information please discuss this scheme with the team at Reading Borough Council:

Email us at energyfunding@reading.gov.uk
Call us on 0118 937 3787

Alternatively, you can speak to AgilityEco on 0800 107 8883.