BY BAND GUIDE
EPC Rating E 2026: Grants & Upgrades You Can Get
An EPC rating of E means your home leaks heat and costs more to run than roughly 80% of properties in England.
Check eligibilityLast updated May 2026
An EPC rating of E means your home leaks heat and costs more to run than roughly 80% of properties in England.
Answer a few quick questions to see which government energy grants you're eligible for. Free, instant results.
An EPC rating of E means your home leaks heat and costs more to run than roughly 80% of properties in England. But here's the upside: band E puts you in the sweet spot for government grants. ECO4 can fully fund insulation and heating upgrades if you're on qualifying benefits, and the Warm Homes: Local Grant covers improvements through your council. You've also got the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offering £7,500 off a heat pump, no income test required.
An EPC score between 39 and 54. That's what puts you in band E.
In practical terms, it means your home loses heat significantly faster than average. You're likely spending £600 to £1,200 more per year on energy than someone in a band C property of similar size, depending on your heating system and how well (or badly) the walls and loft are insulated. Most band E homes we see share a few common traits: they're older builds, often pre-1950, with solid walls or uninsulated cavities, single glazing or early double glazing that's past its best, and a boiler that's been chugging along for 15 years or more. See our guide on solid wall insulation solutions for more detail.
Only about 9% of homes in England sit at band E, according to the latest government EPC statistics. That's roughly 2.3 million properties.
So is it bad? Honestly, it's below average but it's far from the worst. Band F and G homes exist, and they're in much rougher shape. The important thing about band E is what it qualifies you for, because the government has specifically designed its grant schemes to target homes at this level and below.
If you want to understand how all the bands compare, our full guide to EPC ratings breaks down every band from A to G.
This is where band E actually works in your favour.
Three live schemes are relevant to you right now, and one recently closed scheme is worth knowing about for context. Let's go through what's actually available.
ECO4 is the big one. If you're on a qualifying benefit like Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support, or Child Tax Credit, ECO4 can fund the full cost of insulation and heating upgrades. We're talking loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation, new boilers, even first-time central heating in some cases. See our guide on boiler replacement funding options for more detail. Fully funded means you pay nothing.
The catch? You need to be on one of those benefits, or your energy supplier needs to have identified you through the flexible eligibility route (which your local authority manages). ECO4 runs until December 2026, so the window isn't huge.
For band E homes specifically, ECO4 is designed to push your rating up by at least two bands. So if you're at E, the target is C. That's a significant jump, and it usually means multiple measures installed together rather than just one.
This one's newer and works differently. Your local council administers it, the amounts vary by area, and the eligibility criteria aren't identical everywhere. Some councils prioritise band E and below. Others focus on specific neighbourhoods or housing types.
We've covered the Warm Homes: Local Grant in detail separately, but the key thing for band E homeowners is that your rating alone often meets the property criteria. The scheme runs until 2030 under the Warm Homes Plan, giving you more time than ECO4.
Right, so this one's different again. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme doesn't care about your income or your benefits. It gives you £7,500 off an air source heat pump, £7,500 off a ground source heat pump, or £5,000 off a biomass boiler. There's also £2,500 for air-to-air heat pumps and heat batteries, though those are less common.
No income test. No benefit requirement. You just need a valid EPC (any band), and you need to be replacing a fossil fuel heating system. The scheme runs until 2030 under the Warm Homes Plan.
If you're wondering whether a heat pump makes sense for a band E home, the honest answer is: it depends on your insulation. A heat pump in a poorly insulated house works harder and costs more to run. Most installers will recommend improving insulation first, then fitting the heat pump. Which is actually the ideal order if you can combine ECO4 insulation with a BUS-funded heat pump. Our guide on whether heat pumps are worth it covers the real numbers.
GBIS closed in March 2026. It previously offered up to £3,000 towards insulation for homes in council tax bands A to D. If you missed it, you can read about what replaced GBIS, but the practical replacement for most band E homeowners is ECO4 or the Warm Homes: Local Grant.
£300.
That's roughly what it costs to top up loft insulation to 270mm of mineral wool, and it's often enough to add 10 to 15 points to your EPC score. For a home sitting at 39 to 54, that could push you into band D or even band C territory if combined with one other measure.
Here's what we'd recommend, roughly in order of cost-effectiveness:
Loft insulation. If your loft has less than 100mm of insulation (or none at all), this is the single best upgrade. £300 to £600 for a typical three-bed semi, and the payback period is usually under two years through energy savings alone. Under ECO4, this can be fully funded.
Cavity wall insulation. If your home was built between roughly 1930 and 1990, there's a good chance you have unfilled cavity walls. Filling them costs £400 to £800 privately, but again, ECO4 covers this completely for eligible households. Our cavity wall insulation guide covers what to expect.
Heating controls and a smart thermostat. Surprisingly effective on an EPC assessment. Adding a room thermostat, programmer, and TRVs can bump your score by 5 to 8 points. Cost: £150 to £350.
Beyond those three, the scheme also covers solid wall insulation (internal or external), floor insulation, and in some cases solar panels, though the cost and disruption go up significantly. Solid wall insulation in particular can cost £8,000 to £14,000 externally or £5,000 to £9,000 internally if you're paying out of pocket, which is exactly why the grant schemes exist.
A quick aside: we sometimes see assessors recommend LED lighting upgrades on EPC reports. It does technically improve your score, but by such a tiny amount that it's barely worth mentioning. The real gains come from insulation and heating. Anyway.
If you want a full breakdown ranked by cost, our guide on how to improve your EPC rating lists every upgrade cheapest first.
Yes to both, with conditions.
For ECO4, your home needs to be rated E, F, or G (you tick that box), and you or someone in your household needs to receive a qualifying benefit. The scheme aims to bring your home up to at least band C where practical. ECO4 is funded by the large energy suppliers, so you apply through companies like British Gas, EDF, E.ON, OVO, or Octopus Energy, or through an ECO4 installer who works with those suppliers.
For the Warm Homes: Local Grant, the criteria vary by council. In some areas, Nottingham City Council has been particularly active in funding band E upgrades. Cornwall Council has run targeted programmes for off-gas-grid properties. Your council might have different priorities. The best starting point is checking directly with your local authority or using our eligibility checker, which cross-references your postcode against live scheme data.
One thing most guides won't tell you: you can sometimes combine schemes. A homeowner could get ECO4-funded insulation and then separately apply for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to replace their gas boiler with a heat pump. The schemes are funded by different pots of money, so they don't conflict. Not every installer knows this, and some will only offer you one scheme because that's the one they're registered with.
Let's put some numbers on it.
A typical band E home spends around £2,400 to £3,200 per year on energy, based on current Ofgem price cap rates. A band C home of similar size spends roughly £1,400 to £1,800. That's a saving of £800 to £1,400 per year.
Will you hit those numbers exactly? Probably not. Savings depend on your specific house, your heating habits, energy prices at the time, and which upgrades you actually install. But the direction is clear and consistent: a two-band improvement from E to C typically cuts energy bills by 30% to 45%.
If the upgrades are funded through ECO4 or the Warm Homes: Local Grant, your out-of-pocket cost could be zero. So the savings are pure gain from day one.
And there's a less obvious benefit. Property value. Research from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero suggests that improving from band E to band C can add 5% to 8% to a property's sale price. On a £250,000 home, that's £12,500 to £20,000. We'd take that with a pinch of salt because local markets vary enormously, but the trend is real.
For anyone thinking about solar panels as part of the upgrade, they won't dramatically change your EPC score (typically 5 to 10 points), but they will reduce your electricity bills by a further £300 to £500 per year depending on system size and your usage patterns.
So you know your rating. Here's what to do with that information.
First, check whether your EPC is still valid. Certificates last 10 years, and if yours is older than that, you'll need a new one before applying for most grants. A new assessment costs £50 to £120 depending on your area.
Second, look at the recommendations page on your existing EPC. Every certificate comes with a list of suggested improvements and estimated costs. It's not always perfectly accurate, but it gives you a starting point for which upgrades will have the biggest impact on your specific home.
Third, check your grant eligibility. If you're on benefits, ECO4 should be your first port of call. If you're not on benefits, the Warm Homes: Local Grant and Boiler Upgrade Scheme are your main options. Our eligibility checker takes about two minutes and tells you exactly which schemes apply to your postcode and circumstances.
Don't sit on a band E rating if you don't have to. The grants are there. The savings are real. And ECO4 in particular has a deadline of December 2026 that's approaching faster than most people realise.
Open the eligibility checker. Two minutes. You'll see exactly what you qualify for.
Common questions