To qualify for central heating grants in Wirral you must live within the

Wirral Council Boundary and pay your council tax to Wirral Council.

Wirral central heating grants are funded by the Government’s ECO Scheme and Wirral Council can recommend that their residents qualify.

If you don’t live in Wirral you may still qualify for a grant to install central heating under the Government’s ECO Scheme. You can apply HERE.

To qualify under ECO Scheme rules or LA Flex rules you must be a home owner or a tenant in a privately rented home.

Householders who live in council owned homes, shared ownership homes and homes owned by a housing association do not qualify for Wirral central heating grants.

To qualify for first time central heating grants your home must never have had a central heating system fitted before.

If it has had a central heating system fitted but it has been removed, you will not qualify.

There are two ways to qualify for first time central heating grants:

For home owners and private tenants:

You, or someone who lives permanently with you, receives one of the qualifying state benefits, tax credits or other allowances.

You do not receive any benefits but you may qualify if you need to pay a substantial part of your household income to keep your home warm. This is referred to as the ECO Flex or LA Flex scheme where Wirral Council can recommend that you qualify for a grant to install central heating even though you don’t receive benefits.

All property types are included in the Wirral central heating grants scheme as long as you meet all of the other requirements of the scheme.

In some cases we can arrange for a mains gas supply and a gas meter to be installed in your home at no cost to you.

This will allow you to have a gas central heating system installed under the Wirral central heating grants scheme.

If you apply for the Wirral central heating grants scheme today and you qualify, you could have central heating installed in your home in as little as two to three weeks.

Obviously this will take longer if your home needs to a have a mains gas supply installed first.

To qualify for the Wirral central heating grants scheme your home MUST have no heating at all OR one of the following heating systems:

1. Electric room heaters, including direct acting room heaters, fan heaters or inefficient electric storage heaters
2. Gas room heaters; including fixed mains gas room heaters; or
3. Gas fire with back boiler; or
4. Solid fossil fuel fire with back boiler
5. Electric underfloor or ceiling heating (not part of an electric boiler); or
6. Bottled LPG room heating; or
7. Solid fossil fuel room heaters; or
8. Wood/biomass room heating; or
9. Oil room heaters

The heating system used to check your eligibility for Wirral Central Heating Grants is the one which appears as the ‘Main Heating’ system on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for your home. You can see your EPC HERE by entering your post code.

Firstly, to apply for the Wirral Central Heating Grants Scheme you need to complete the form on this page of the website and it will be automatically emailed to us.

We will telephone you to confirm all of the information on the form and to arrange a free survey of your home and any heating system it currently has.

If you receive one of the qualifying benefits, with your permission we will carry out an automated check with the DWP that you do qualify. We don’t see any information about your benefits, we simply get a Yes / No answer as to whether you qualify.

If you are a home owner and you don’t receive benefits, we will complete the LA Flex forms with you to apply for approval by Wirral Council.

Once the relevant permissions have been granted, your new central heating system can be installed and the installer won’t be paid until it is complete and you are happy with it.

You may qualify for a grant under LA Flex to install central heating in your home if you live in one of these areas or boroughs:

This is a list of populated places in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

• Barnston
• Bebington
• Beechwood
• Bidston
• Birkenhead
• Brimstage
• Bromborough
• Caldy
• Clatterbridge
• Claughton
• Eastham
• Egremont
• Ford
• Frankby
• Gayton
• Grange
• Greasby
• Heswall
• Hoylake
• Irby
• Landican
• Larton
• Leasowe
• Liscard
• Meols
• Moreton
• New Brighton
• New Ferry
• Newton
• Noctorum
• Oxton
• Pensby
• Port Sunlight
• Poulton
• Prenton
• Raby Mere
• Raby
• Rock Ferry
• Saughall Massie
• Seacombe
• Spital
• Storeton
• Thingwall
• Thornton Hough
• Thurstaston
• Tranmere
• Upton
• Wallasey
• Wallasey Village
• West Kirby
• Woodchurch
• Woodside

In most cases, having a new central heating system installed under the Wirral central heating grants scheme does not require a contribution from you and it is installed free of charge. Also, if you need to have a mains gas supply connected, that if quite often done without charge.

However, we will not know whether a contribution is required until your free survey has been carried out. If a contribution is required, it will be explained fully and you will have the option to withdraw your application if you are not happy to pay it. You do not have to continue with the application if you don’t want to and there will be no charge for the survey.

Wirral central heating grants cover the cost of all materials and installation including a new mains gas central heating boiler, central heating radiators, all the necessary pipework and thermostatic heating controls.

If any plasterwork is damaged during the installation it will be repaired but the grant does not cover the cost of redecoration.

If your home does not have a mains gas supply, a separate grant may be available to connect one.

Funding for Wirral central heating grants comes from the Government’s ECO Scheme and there are two ways of qualifying:

1. If you receive one of the qualifying benefits your new central heating system will be paid for by the Government’s ECO Scheme. Electricity suppliers place a levy of around £30 per year on every domestic electricity bill in England, Scotland and Wales. This money is paid into an ECO Fund and payments are made out of it directly to installation companies after they have installed your central heating system
2. If you don’t receive one of the qualifying benefits you may qualify under the ECO Flex or LA Flex Scheme. In this case funding still comes from the ECO Scheme, it is just another way of qualifying.