Do I Qualify for Funding?
In order to benefit from ECO funding your property will need to
require energy efficiency upgrades.
The property must have an energy rating of D or below.
There are three routes to funding which are shown below:
Benefits
Someone on the household is in receipt of one of the following:
- Universal Credit
- Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit and/or Savings Credit)
- Income Support
- Child Tax Credit (CTC)
- Working Tax Credit (WTC)
- Housing Benefit
Low Income
Total household income less than £31,000 (before tax)
Someone in the household has a
medical condition (one of 4 categories):
Cardiovascular
Respiratory
Immunosuppressed
Limited mobility
Medical
Government Funded Schemes
1
ECO 4
The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) is a government energy-efficiency scheme which 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
2
GBIS
The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) helps people get free or cheaper insulation to reduce their home’s energy bills. The scheme complements the ECO4 scheme but unlike ECO4’s ‘whole house’ approach, this scheme will mostly deliver single insulation measures.
3
LA Flex
Local Authority Flex (LA Flex) is part of the ECO scheme but is local authority led. It allows councils to set their own criteria to determine which households are supported. This is known as LA Flexible Eligibility and allows residents to be offered measures who wouldn’t usually be entitled to grant funding. Funding is only available to private tenure households (i.e. private rented sector and owner occupiers
Eco improvements are funded by energy suppliers who are obligated by the government to pay for energy efficiency improvements in UK homes. This cost is recovered through a modest levy on all household energy bills, which is not funded by general taxation (this will change from April 2026).
There are a variety of funding schemes available but the three main schemes are shown below (all are administered by Ofgem and funding is available for under all three). Although the criteria is slightly different for each scheme, the criteria is broadly similar as outlined under the Do I qualify section of this page (i.e. 3 routes - Benefits,
Low Income or Medical Conditions).