Question answered
Can you get a government grant for a new roof?
The short answer
There is no general grant for a new roof or for roof repairs. National schemes fund insulation and heating, and a disabled facilities grant pays for adaptations. In Adur and Worthing, up to £5,000 is available towards removing a serious hazard, subject to a means test. Eligibility is never guaranteed, so ask the council's Housing Grants Team about your own case.
No national scheme pays for a new roof or a roof repair as such. Some schemes fund loft insulation, and a local grant helps low-income households remove hazards, but none promises roof work.
Why there is no general roof grant
Searching for a grant to repair a roof turns up a lot of adverts, and almost none of them point to a scheme that pays for a new roof as such. The national schemes running in October 2026 are about energy: they pay for insulation, heating and similar measures. Roofing work can sit alongside them, but a worn-out roof covering is not what they fund.
Be careful with anyone who tells you that you qualify for a free or grant-funded roof. Genuine schemes are applied for through official channels, with an assessment first, and a trader who promises it on the doorstep is a warning sign. Our page on what to do when a roofer knocks on your door explains how to respond.
Energy schemes: ECO4, insulation and Warm Homes
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) is a government scheme to tackle fuel poverty. Ofgem says it applies to measures installed from 1 April 2022 and runs until 31 December 2026. You may qualify if you receive a means-tested benefit and own your home or have your landlord's permission, and the measures are decided by a retrofit assessment. Ofgem's description of the scheme says nothing about repairing or renewing a roof.
Do not look for the Great British Insulation Scheme, which closed after 31 March 2026 as the deadline for finished installations. The government's Warm Homes Plan and the Warm Homes: Local Grant support insulation, heat pumps and similar upgrades, with a usual household income limit of £36,000, a home rated D, E, F or G on its energy certificate, and only where your council has funding. These are about the fabric of the home, such as loft insulation, not the roof covering.
Disabled Facilities Grants
A Disabled Facilities Grant is for adaptations that help a disabled person live at home, such as ramps, level-access showers or a stairlift. In England GOV.UK gives the grant as up to £30,000, depending on household income and savings. The examples it lists do not include roofs.
In Adur and Worthing, the councils give £30,000 as the most a grant can pay, and larger works may attract a discretionary extra of as much as £40,000. The applicant or someone living with them must be disabled, on a low income and a homeowner or tenant (not a council tenant), and works must not start before approval. That scheme is for adaptation, so a roof repair would count only if it is part of what an occupational therapist recommends. See GOV.UK on Disabled Facilities Grants.
Repair help in Adur and Worthing
The one local grant that can help with repairs is the councils' Repair Grant Assistance. The councils say the sum available is up to £5,000. To apply you must be getting an income-related benefit, you must have been the owner for a year or more, and the house must have a serious hazard. Being disabled is not what qualifies you. The councils frame it as money towards removing that hazard, so ask whether a leaking roof in your case would be treated as one.
The councils' Housing Grants Team can point you to grants towards home repairs, and you can write to it at housing.grants.team@adur-worthing.gov.uk or at Worthing Town Hall, Chapel Road, BN11 1HA. If your home is listed, or sits in a conservation area, ask the council's conservation team before you plan work. Insulation can also carry VAT relief: installing certain energy-saving materials is zero-rated until 31 March 2027, then 5%, but whether that applies inside a re-roof comes down to how the insulation is supplied alongside the other work, and we set out the position when we quote. It is a point worth raising early with any roofer, since the answer can change the total. More about Watertight Worthing Roofing and its services is on the home page.
Paying for a roof when no grant applies
If no grant fits, the practical route is a repair rather than a replacement where a repair properly solves the problem, and a staged plan if the roof needs more than one job. Typical costs are in our roofing costs guide, and the daily rates that sit behind labour are in what a roofer charges per day.
Ask every roofer to put one total figure in writing, and find out if VAT and any scaffold are counted in it. Where the work changes the roof structure or its thermal performance, our roof regulations guide explains when Building Regulations come in. Any figures and rules here were checked on 20 October 2026 and schemes change, so confirm current details with the scheme or the council before relying on them.
Roof grants: two more questions
I claim benefits and my roof leaks: where do I start?
Not with a roofer's advert. Adur and Worthing's Repair Grant Assistance is for owners on an income-related benefit with a serious hazard in the home, and ECO4 may help with insulation. Ask the councils' Housing Grants Team whether your leak would count, and keep photographs of the damage to show them.
Are there grants for a roof on a listed building?
Whether grants exist for listed homes is for the council's conservation team. Ask the council's conservation team before you plan any work, and ask them at the same time what funding, if any, is open to you.
More quick answers
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