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The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) is a government energy-efficiency scheme in Great Britain, designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions. ECO is an obligation placed on energy companies to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic premises. ECO is not a grant scheme; it is up to the energy companies to determine which retrofit projects they choose to fund, the level of funding they provide, and the Retrofit Coordinator and installers that they choose to work with.

ECO4 focusses on improving the least energy efficient homes and households in fuel poverty, as only properties in bands D-G can be treated. It also aims to deliver a more complete upgrade of those homes, shifting to a multi-measure whole-house retrofit approach. Furthermore, a minimum number of private tenure homes in energy efficiency rating band E, F and G must be upgraded throughout ECO4, ensuring the least efficient homes are treated.

There is a new Minimum Requirement (MR) to improve the energy efficiency rating of band D and E homes to at least a band C and band F and G homes to at least a band D. ECO4 aims to encourage the installation of various energy efficient measures such as insulation measures, first time central heating, renewable heating, and district heating connections.

In order to benefit from ECO, you must own your own home or have the permission of your landlord, including if your property is owned by a social housing provider or management company. As ECO4 is not a grant scheme, different companies or installers may provide different levels or types of support towards the installation of energy efficiency or heating measures. We recommend consumers look around for the best deal suitable for them.

There are a number of ways to find out whether you can benefit from ECO:

    1- You could check Simple Energy Advice website.
    2- You can make further enquiries about accessing ECO measures by contacting any one of obligated suppliers. Please note you can receive help from another obligated energy company, while also remaining as a customer with your current energy provider.
    3- You could also use the government's energy grants calculator to check if you are eligible for help with your energy bills.

ECO eligibility is assessed using a combination of householder criteria and house makeup. Information on how the house makeup eligibility is determined can be found in Chapter 3 of ECO4 Delivery Guidance. The householder eligibility criteria are assessed using three separate pathways:

1- Receipt of eligible benefits of the Help to Heat Group

You will be eligible for ECO4 if you are living at private domestic premises and are a member of the Help to Heat Group (HTHG). Membership of the HTHG entails receipt of at least one of the following benefits and satisfaction of the relevant income requirements:

1) Income based Jobseekers Allowance (JSA),

2) Income related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA),

3) Income Support (IS),

4) Pension Credit Guarantee Credit (PCGC),

5) Working Tax Credit (WTC),

6) Child Tax Credit (CTC),

7) Universal Credit (UC),

8) Housing Benefit,

9) Pension Credit Savings Credit (PCSC),

10) Child Benefit, (within the income caps),

Additionally, a person living at private domestic premises is an eligible member of the HTHG if the person is in receipt of the Core Group 1 and Core Group 2 rebate in England and Wales, or the Core Group in Scotland, for each respective scheme year under the Warm Home Discount scheme.

Households with disabilities would be eligible only where they are in receipt of a means tested benefit or found eligible under one of the four routes outlined in the eligibility mechanism 'ECO4 Flex'. Further information on ECO4 Flex can be found in Chapter 6 of the ECO4 Guidance: Delivery.

2- Living in social housing with poor energy efficiency.

Measures under ECO4 can be delivered to social housing with an EPC energy efficiency rating of D, E, F, and G, where the premises are let below the market rate.

Delivery of measures to SAP band E-G rated social housing premises is limited to the following measures:

a) Insulation measures

b) First time central heating

c) Renewable heating except where it replaces a renewable heating measure of the same kind at the domestic premises

d) District heating connection

e) Innovation measures (IMs).

Delivery to EPC band D rated social housing is limited to IMs and insulation measures installed to meet the Minimum Insulation Requirements only. Band D social housing are also required to meet the Minimum Requirements; however, they are not eligible to receive other measures.

3- Eligibility under ECO4 Flex

Under ECO4 Flex, local authorities (LAs), the Scottish and Welsh Governments, and suppliers can identify households that meet certain legislated eligibility requirements. LAs will use the four routes listed under ECO4 Flex to identify eligible households. Further information on each of these routes can be found in the ECO4 Guidance: Local Authority Administration and Chapter 6 of the ECO4 Guidance: Delivery. The LA will contact you should you meet the eligible criteria and can refer you for the scheme.

You may wish to contact your LA for more information, or to find out if you meet the eligible criteria.

Note that meeting the eligibility for an ECO4 measure will not guarantee that it will be installed. It is up to the energy companies to determine which retrofit projects they choose to fund, the level of funding they provide and the Retrofit Coordinator and installers they choose to work with. We encourage that you speak to your energy supplier, should you have any queries about your eligibility and the retrofit process for the delivery of measures under ECO4.

Funding for measures delivered under ECO4 must not be blended with funding from other government schemes or grants, including but not limited to the Warm Home Discount (WHD), Boiler Upgrade Grand (BUS), Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and Home Upgrade Grant (HUG). Any measures outside of ECO4 delivered to the same property would have to be installed either before the ECO4 retrofit project was started or after the entire project is complete and all measures have been installed.

Certain households that do not meet the criteria for fuel poverty or vulnerability to cold but that are living on the same street or same building or block as households that do meet those criteria may also be eligible for the same type of measures through this route. Measures delivered to these premises are known as “in-fill”.

There are separate rules for in-fill in flats and in-fill in houses. For every flat that meets the ECO4 eligibility one in-fill flat can be treated, if it is in the same block of flats. In-Fill flats need to be in the same block or building as the flats that meet the ECO4 eligibility criteria. For every three houses treated under ECO4 subject to meeting the ECO4 eligibility criteria, one in-fill house on the same street can be treated.

In-fill flats can receive Solid Wall insulation, district heating system connection or cavity wall insulation. In-fill houses can receive solid wall insulation or district heating system connection. You may be eligible for ECO4 under one of the two in-fill mechanisms that are established by the scheme.

It is up to the energy companies to determine which retrofit projects they choose to fund, the level of funding they provide, and the retrofit coordinator or installers they choose to work with. The level of funding will depend on the measures type and a number of other factors. In some cases, you may be asked to contribute to the cost of the installation. ECO is not a grant scheme and as such, different companies or installers may provide different levels or types of support towards the installation of energy efficiency or heating measures. Ofgem do not comment on the scale or cost of consumer contributions. If you are asked to contribute to the cost of the installation, we encourage you to 'shop around' for the best deal to ensure you are satisfied with any offer made.

No. Any obligated supplier can deliver measures to any domestic premises in England, Wales and Scotland, provided the eligibility criteria are met.

Energy companies work with third party retrofit coordinators and installers to deliver their ECO obligations, which may result in a retrofit coordinator or installer approaching a consumer directly to enquire about installing retrofit measures as part of a project under ECO4.

In addition, installers must be certified under a regulatory body to ensure the installation standard of the measure. You should expect an installer to hold the following certification for the relevant measure types:

    1- Most installations will need to be carried out by a PAS (Publicly Available Specification) certified installer and will have a registration number.
    2- If they are installing low carbon microgeneration measures (eg renewable measures that produce heat), they need to be Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) accredited and will be registered on the MCS website.
    3- If they are repairing or replacing a gas boiler, the company must be registered with Gas Safe. You can check this on Gas Safe's website.
    4- For oil boiler repairs, installers must be registered with the Oil Firing Technical Association (OFTEC). You can check this on the OFTEC website.

It is the eligibility of the tenant of the property, rather than the landlord, that needs to be considered for ECO4 retrofits. To reflect the Minimum level of Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) for private rented sector (PRS) properties, the measure types that can be installed in PRS properties under ECO4 depend on the EPC rating. The following are eligible measures for PRS properties:

PRS properties occupied by a member of the HTHG, or a person declared as eligible by the local authority with an initial SAP energy efficiency rating of E, F, and G are eligible to receive ECO4 measures. See Question 4 for more information on HTHG eligibility.

The package of measures that PRS properties receive must include at least one of the following measures, in addition to further ECO measures necessary to meet the MR:

    1- Solid wall insulation (SWI),
    2- First time central heating (FTCH),
    3- District heating system connection,
    4- Renewable heating, except where it replaces a renewable heating measure of the same kind at the domestic premises.
        -> In general, the replacement or repair of a boiler, central heating system or electric storage heater is not eligible in PRS properties under ECO4 as part of the package upgrade. However, this is permissible when the replacement heating measure is the installation of FTCH, a renewable heating measure or a district heating connection.
        -> The replacement of inefficient heating systems in PRS homes can happen in the following circumstances:
            1- Electric Storage Heaters can be replaced if they are being replaced by FTCH.
            2- An inefficient heating system can be replaced with a renewable heating system.
        -> A renewable heating system cannot be replaced with another renewable heating system of the same kind.

You may be able to have ECO4 measures installed if you are a tenant living in privately rented premises and you meet the relevant eligibility criteria. To do so you must gain consent from your landlord. Suppliers may choose to request evidence that the landlord's permission has been obtained for the delivery of a measure(s) in a PRS property.

Consent can be evidenced using the ECO4 Eligibility Requirements Form. This document can be used to evidence that the property is owned by a private landlord. Suppliers may choose to have further evidence requirements in relation to PRS properties beyond this.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have published a guide on their website outlining your rights regarding obtaining consent in certain circumstances, as well as the key steps a tenant must take when preparing an energy efficiency consent request.

It is possible to get your boiler repaired, replaced, or upgraded under ECO4. For a broken boiler replacement to be eligible, immediately prior to the installation the premises must have an efficient boiler, which has broken down and cannot be economically repaired. However, the ECO4 scheme includes a cap on the replacement of all efficient broken heating systems. The following measures can be installed outside of the broken heating system cap:

    1- First Time Central Heating (FTCH)
    2- A heating system upgrade
    3- A renewable heating system
    4- A district heating connection
    5- An innovation measure
    6- The installation of heating controls

Heating system upgrades (which are not capped) can only occur when the existing boiler is inefficient (non-condensing), otherwise, the boiler is instead eligible for a replacement subject to the cap. See Chapter 5 of the ECO4 Guidance: Delivery document for more information on eligible boiler measures.

New build extensions

A new build extension is an extension completed on or after 1 April 2022.

An ECO project may not be delivered to a new build extension until the works for the extension have been completed.

In the case of measures installed to new build extensions, suppliers will need to evidence that the construction of the extension is complete prior to the date of completed installation of the ECO measure.

Suitable evidence that the extension was completed before the date of completed installation includes:

    1- In England and Wales, building control completion certificate, or
    2- In Scotland, the notification from a local authority of acceptance of a completion certificate.

Where neither of these documents are available, suppliers should contact us to discuss alternative documentation.

This evidence must be made available on request. Where no documentation is available, the measure may be ineligible.

Building Extensions

ECO measures cannot be delivered to an unfinished new build extension. If a measure is installed to a property that had an on-going new build extension, then the measure can only be claimed for the existing part of the property.

Yes, window glazing can be installed as either 'single to double' or 'improved double glazing'. While a replacement window glazing measure is eligible under ECO4, we stress that it is up to the energy companies to determine which retrofit projects and measure packages they choose to fund.

Full grant depend on occupier's circumstances such as benefits received, household's total earning, number of children living at the property, age of the children and many other factors. All funds are provided by the major energy companies under the (ECO) Energy Companies obligation scheme. If you qualify, we can arrange home assessment free of cost. If you are interested in any of the energy efficiency measure, please fill up the online form and we will contact you with 36 working hours to arrange a free no obligation assessment.

All installer Registered Companies must offer you a workmanship warranty. This workmanship warranty covers work done by Registered Technicians. The warranty protects you in the situation when work is found not to comply with regulations and the contractor is no longer in business to do the necessary remedial work. We are approved certified installed and all work comes with warranties.

The ECO4 Guidance: Delivery is a comprehensive document for anyone looking for in-depth information regarding ECO.

If you still have questions, please contact us at info@workworkltd.com