Park home insulation grants: what actually applies

Why park homes need their own answer

A park home — a residential mobile home or lodge sited on a protected park — is built very differently from a bricks-and-mortar house. Instead of masonry walls and a loft void, most park homes have a timber or steel chassis, thin walls with a small cavity or none at all, a floor suspended above the ground, and a shallow roof. That non-standard construction is exactly why generic insulation-grant content fails park-home residents: advice written for cavity walls and 270mm loft top-ups simply does not map onto a home whose walls are 100mm thick and whose "loft" is a void a few centimetres deep.

Park homes are named in the official scheme measure lists — they are not excluded — but they are assessed and treated separately, using park-home-specific insulation systems. The measures that tend to matter are wall insulation (usually an external or internal system engineered for park-home walls), underfloor insulation to the suspended base, and roof or ceiling insulation. Because these are specialist installs on a non-standard building, costs vary widely and a proper survey is essential before anyone quotes you a figure. This page sets out the honest position on funding, nation by nation, and points you to the official channels.

The two funding routes that matter

For a park home, two routes do most of the work: ECO4 (the Energy Company Obligation, delivered by obligated energy suppliers) and your nation's local or fuel-poverty scheme. The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) also historically covered some homes, but it closed on 31 March 2026 and has no successor — so ignore any site still presenting GBIS as open. There is no "ECO5" and no wave of "new free grants from April 2026"; those are invented. Always sense-check a claim against whether the grant is really free and against current gov.uk guidance.

ECO4 — open to 31 December 2026 (Great Britain only)

ECO4 was extended by nine months, from 31 March 2026 to 31 December 2026, in the government response published on 23 January 2026. It runs in England, Scotland and Wales but not Northern Ireland. You do not apply to Ofgem directly — you go through an obligated energy supplier or an accredited installer, or you ask your council about the ECO4 Flex (LA Flex) route. Because it is a whole-house, fabric-first scheme, an assessor looks at the whole home rather than selling you a single measure. Note that suppliers may stop taking new referrals before the December deadline, so a poorly-insulated park home with an eligible household should not leave it to the last minute. Our dedicated ECO4 guide and ECO4 vs GBIS comparison explain the mechanics in full.

ECO4 eligibility for an owner-occupied park home generally needs an EPC in band D-G plus a qualifying means-tested benefit — or the ECO4 Flex route for low-income households who are not on benefits but are referred by their council under a published Statement of Intent. The qualifying benefits and tenure rules are the same as for any home; see our eligibility checker and the page on grants if you are not on benefits.

Your nation's scheme

This is where park-home residents most often get wrong-nation advice. The scheme depends entirely on where the park is:

Nation	Local scheme for park homes	Key point
England	Warm Homes: Local Grant (via your council)	Open, council-by-council; funds insulation, heat pumps, controls, solar
Scotland	Home Energy Scotland Grant & Loan; Warmer Homes Scotland	Single gateway 0808 808 2282; measure must be in an EPC/home energy report
Wales	Warm Homes Nest	Welsh Government fuel-poverty scheme; check exact figures with Nest
Northern Ireland	Affordable Warmth Scheme (NIHE); NISEP	ECO4 and GBIS do not operate in NI

In England, the Warm Homes: Local Grant runs from April 2025 to around 31 March 2028, is delivered by your local council at no cost to the occupant, and covers homes with an EPC of D-G where the household meets an income test (income usually £36,000 a year or less), receives a qualifying benefit, or sits in an eligible low-income postcode. It funds wall, loft and underfloor insulation among other measures, and figures of up to around £30,000 per home have been reported (the gov.uk apply page states no maximum, so treat that as "reported — check current gov.uk guidance"). Availability genuinely varies council by council.

In Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland Grant has no benefits test and funds 75% of cost up to £7,500 for energy efficiency (with a £1,500 rural or island uplift), with per-measure caps — for example loft/cavity/floor insulation at £2,000 each. You must own and live in the park home and the measure must be recommended in an EPC or home energy report. Warmer Homes Scotland is effectively free for eligible older or vulnerable households. Spray foam is excluded from the Home Energy Scotland Grant — an important point for park homes, which are a common target for spray-foam sales.

In Wales, Warm Homes Nest is the Welsh Government route; confirm its exact eligibility and any caps against nest.gov.wales before relying on a figure. In Northern Ireland, neither ECO4 nor GBIS operates, so a park home there looks to the Affordable Warmth Scheme (via the Housing Executive, for households with total gross income under £23,000) and NISEP.

What the work typically costs

Because a park home is non-standard, unsubsidised costs are hard to generalise and always warrant a survey. As a rough anchor from Energy Saving Trust figures for standard homes: loft insulation from bare joists is around £900 in Great Britain, cavity wall insulation around £2,700 where a suitable cavity exists, and underfloor insulation to a suspended floor £1,400 to £2,500. Park-home wall systems are usually a purpose-built external or internal install rather than a simple cavity fill, so treat those numbers as indicative only. The point of a grant is to remove or reduce that cost for an eligible household — see our full cost guide and the how to apply walkthrough.

One genuine saving applies even without a grant: in Great Britain, installing qualifying insulation has been at 0% VAT under the Energy-Saving Materials relief. That is a real reduction for an "able-to-pay" park-home owner, though you should confirm the current rate and any end date against HMRC VAT Notice 708/6, and note that treatment in Northern Ireland can differ.

Quality, accreditation and scams — the park-home trust moat

Park homes attract a disproportionate share of insulation cold-calling, and the risks are real. Two rules protect you. First, grant-funded work must be done to standard: registered with TrustMark and delivered under PAS 2035 (retrofit) and PAS 2030 (installation), starting with a retrofit assessment and a Retrofit Coordinator. If an installer skips the assessment and just tries to sell you one measure, that is a red flag. Second, be extremely wary of spray-foam loft or roof insulation. It is a known mis-selling trap that can block mortgages and re-sales, and it is explicitly excluded from the Home Energy Scotland Grant — a particular concern for park homes, which are often approached by spray-foam sellers.

The National Audit Office found in October 2025 that around 98% of external-wall-insulation jobs under ECO4 and GBIS had defects, prompting free TrustMark "Find & Fix" audits. If your park home has had recent grant-funded external insulation, it is worth checking whether the install needs auditing. More broadly: real schemes are applied for via gov.uk, Home Energy Scotland, the NI Housing Executive, your council, or an accredited installer — never through an unsolicited "free insulation grant" call, doorstep seller or text. Never pay upfront and never start work before you have written grant approval. Our scams and myths page covers the funnels in detail.

How to check if you qualify

Start with your EPC — nearly every insulation grant is gated on a poor rating, typically D-G, and a park home with thin walls and a shallow roof often sits in that band. Then confirm which nation's scheme applies and whether your household meets the income, benefit or postcode test. Our free eligibility checker walks you through it in a couple of minutes, and the grants and funding hub lists every current scheme. When you are ready to be matched to an accredited installer, use our quote form or get in touch — we install nothing and run no grant ourselves; applying to the real schemes through official channels is always free.

Authoritative sources worth reading directly: Warm Homes: Local Grant (gov.uk), Home Energy Scotland Grant & Loan (mygov.scot), and TrustMark to verify any installer.