No grant for households that can pay
In England there is no grant for solar panels or batteries for households that can afford them. The government's Warm Homes Plan directs its grants at lower-income homes and points everyone else to low-interest loans (Warm Homes Plan). The Warm Homes Loan Scheme is a loan, not a grant, offered through approved lenders (GOV.UK); compare it with any finance an installer offers, and treat neither as a gift.
That matters when reading a quote: if a price has been "reduced by a grant", ask which scheme, and check it yourself.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant in Greater Manchester
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority runs the government-funded Warm Homes: Local Grant as its "GM Wide Scheme" (GMCA). Its energy performance measures include solar PV and battery storage, alongside insulation and low-carbon heating; gas and oil boilers are not eligible. Measures are offered in the order a retrofit assessment recommends, aiming to bring the home up to EPC band C, so solar may come after insulation rather than first. Eligibility is in the next section and has two parts: the home and the household.
| Who | Energy performance | Low-carbon heating | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-occupier, or a landlord's first property | 100% up to £15,000 | 100% up to £15,000 | Up to £30,000 |
| A landlord's later properties | 50% up to £7,500 | 50% up to £7,500 | Up to £15,000 |
GMCA's figures may lag the national ones: DESNZ guidance for councils, updated in June 2026, raised the caps to £16,600 for energy performance and £16,600 for low-carbon heating, averaged across a council's project (DESNZ), so ask GMCA for its current limits.
GMCA's page calls the scheme Greater Manchester-wide but does not list the boroughs one by one; Wigan appears on it as a referral route, through AWARM Wigan. Before relying on it, ask GMCA's Retrofit Team, through the contact on its page, whether your address is covered and whether the scheme is taking applications. The page showed no closing date when we checked.
Who qualifies
The home must be owner-occupied at EPC band D, E, F or G, or privately rented at D or E (F or G only with a registered exemption under the private rented property regulations). Private landlords must support the Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter. 46.4% of Wigan homes with an EPC are below band C (ONS, our arithmetic), though not all of those will be at D or lower.
The household then needs one of these routes (GMCA):
- Postcode: living in a postcode in income deciles 1 or 2 of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2025.
- Benefits: receiving a listed means-tested benefit, such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit or Housing Benefit.
- Proxies: meeting two of six listed proxies, which include Council Tax Reduction, vulnerability to cold and a referral by a listed local scheme such as AWARM Wigan.
- Income: a combined gross household income below £36,000 a year.
In 2024, 9.8% of Wigan households, about 14,606, were in fuel poverty, against 9.9% in England (DESNZ). With 66.4% of households owning their home (Census 2021), many of those who qualify will be owner-occupiers.
VAT, export payments and loans
Everyone gets 0% VAT on installed solar panels and batteries in a home until 31 March 2027, rising to 5% from 1 April 2027 (HMRC). On a 4 kW system at the North West mean of £2,021 per kW, 5% would be about £400, by our arithmetic.
Anyone with an MCS-certified system can be paid for the electricity it sends out: larger suppliers must offer an export rate above zero, each setting its own (Ofgem). That is a payment for electricity, not a grant. Export payments
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays towards heat pumps, not panels: £7,500 towards an air source heat pump, or £9,000 until March 2027 where oil or LPG heats the home and there is no mains gas connection (GOV.UK). Solar with a heat pump
"Grants" offered at the door
A caller who says you qualify for a solar grant, and that you need to sign today to keep it, is using the commonest pressure line there is. A genuine scheme checks eligibility through its own process and a retrofit assessment. Wigan Council's Trading Standards team asks residents to report unwanted callers (Wigan Council), and most contracts made at home can be cancelled within 14 days (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013). More on doorstep sellers, and see what solar costs for the prices to compare against.