Gordon Brown’s long awaited measures to help people struggling with soaring gas and electricity bills may have been derided as a bit of damp squib, but at least there are grants out there to help you insulate your home.

At the heart of the scheme is the plan to restore funding to the existing grants scheme – the government’s flagship Warm Front programme, which suffered a £83m-a-year cut to its budget last November. The government restored £34m a year and this week’s plan will now see each of the big six energy companies contribute an extra £50m a year to fund home improvements.

The package’s key points are:

· If you are 70 or over, earn less than £15,460, and receive one of a number of benefits, your power company will pay for cavity wall and loft insulation. Contact your power firm to confirm your eligibility.

· For the first time the power firms will be “encouraged” to top up existing loft insulation for the most vulnerable, although this is not mandatory.

· The power firm will also offer to pay 50% of the cost of loft and cavity wall insulation for all other households regardless of income.

· On top of the help offered directly by the power firms, Warm Front is still offering grants to help the over 70s and to those on benefits of up to £2,700 to install a new central heating boiler. Critics of the plan claimed that figure should have been raised to cover the entire cost of a new boiler. Anyone aged 65-70 will still receive £300.

· Cold weather payments, triggered after seven consecutive days of temperature below 0C, have been increased from £8.50 a week to £25 for pensioners, disabled people and unemployed families with children under five.

· The government has ordered a freeze on this year’s bills for the 600,000 poorest consumers and promised action to end the financial discrimination suffered by the those forced to use prepayment meters.

Within hours of the announcement phone lines to Warm Front (0800 316 2805) and the government’s helpline (0800 512 012) were jammed by consumers keen to know if they would benefit from the measures.

Ministers said the government’s aim is to insulate of all Britain’s homes, where practical, by 2020.

However, critics seized upon the plan as devoid of “ambition”.

Friends of the Earth pointed to the fact that these measures are likely offer little for the third of all homes that are classified as hard to improve with cheap energy measures.

Age Concern, which last year received 5,000 complaints about Warm Front, said yesterday’s measures did little for the poorest groups who apply for a grant for a new boiler but are forced to drop out because they can’t afford the extra £200-£2,000 demanded by the installer.

For more information on loft and cavity wall insulation visit http://www.thinkinsulation.co.uk