Energy/House Grants/Subsidy...

nickhairyegg

Hey all,

First-time poster, long-time reader...we've moved in to our first home as a young family (well, we've got a three-year-old daughter...!!) and having done the initial painting/decorating and minor bits to make it our own, are looking at the next, slightly more practical steps.

Having had the token free visit from Mr British Gas this morning to recommend an all-singing, all-dancing combi-boiler installation package to replace our extremely dated back boiler/gas fire set-up (that was about £4k if anyone wants to comment on that??), we've gotten to looking at the "£100s of millions of free cash" that is apparently available in housing grants and so on with an eye on heating, insulation, etc, which would be a massive help in deciding what we should do next for the house.

Thing is - my wife and I both work.

This appears to preclude us from just about anything that's going. Our current joint income is around £50k p/a but weighing this up against other savings (mainly nursery, etc), the better half is considering stopping work, which would put us around £35k. As a result, we don't seem to qualify for help with anything.

Our house is a reasonable-sized 3-bed semi with a single small bathroom. It's certainly not a mansion and is in need a little remedial work like the guttering, roof felt/insulation, ancient boiler, etc.

If anyone has any great recommendations we might actually qualify for (or any of the millions probably in the same boat), that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!!

macman

Well for a start, BG will charge you around 39% more than a local independent GSR RGI for an install, so that £4K can come down to maybe £2.5K (even assuming that your supply is suitable for a combi in terms of flow and pressure)..
I'm not quite clear what sort of grants you think are going to be available to a household on an income of £50K, or even £35K though?. The Green Deal is an option, but it's a loan, not a grant. Free loft and cavity wall insulation largely ended last November unless you can find an alternative local scheme. You can otherwise easily do your own loft insulation, and replacement guttering is a straightforward job.
As for the boiler, Warmfront closed for new applications in January, so you'll need to finance that yourself.

lstar337

nickhairyegg wrote: »

Hey all,

First-time poster, long-time reader...we've moved in to our first home as a young family (well, we've got a three-year-old daughter...!!) and having done the initial painting/decorating and minor bits to make it our own, are looking at the next, slightly more practical steps.

Having had the token free visit from Mr British Gas this morning to recommend an all-singing, all-dancing combi-boiler installation package to replace our extremely dated back boiler/gas fire set-up (that was about £4k if anyone wants to comment on that??), we've gotten to looking at the "£100s of millions of free cash" that is apparently available in housing grants and so on with an eye on heating, insulation, etc, which would be a massive help in deciding what we should do next for the house.

Thing is - my wife and I both work.

This appears to preclude us from just about anything that's going. Our current joint income is around £50k p/a but weighing this up against other savings (mainly nursery, etc), the better half is considering stopping work, which would put us around £35k. As a result, we don't seem to qualify for help with anything.

Our house is a reasonable-sized 3-bed semi with a single small bathroom. It's certainly not a mansion and is in need a little remedial work like the guttering, roof felt/insulation, ancient boiler, etc.

If anyone has any great recommendations we might actually qualify for (or any of the millions probably in the same boat), that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!!

Why do you think you would get grants when you earn what I would call a huge sum of money each year?

I haven't qualified for any grants, and I pull in about 15K a year to support myself, my other half, and our 4 year old.

I think you should fork out for your own boiler.

wakeupalarm

You are earning double the national average wage and you want help to pay for maintenance of your new property. Hate to break it to you but owning a home means that the pay packet you receive every month is used for this situation.

nickhairyegg

Replies are appreciated thanks guys, sarcasm or otherwise (name of the site was moneysavingexpert, not 'savings just for people that are struggling on a particular wage' ;-) A lot of these schemes are branded initially as being in the interests of being 'green' rather than just for people unable to fund te alterations themselves - as such naturally you're going to ask. Had assumed it would be the case but thanks for reaffirming it.

lstar337

nickhairyegg wrote: »

Replies are appreciated thanks guys, sarcasm or otherwise (name of the site was moneysavingexpert, not 'savings just for people that are struggling on a particular wage' ;-) A lot of these schemes are branded initially as being in the interests of being 'green' rather than just for people unable to fund te alterations themselves - as such naturally you're going to ask. Had assumed it would be the case but thanks for reaffirming it.

You can be green by buying yourself a nice energy efficient boiler, problem solved.

You weren't interested in being green, you wanted the state to pay for something you could easily afford yourself.