What replaces them
ECO4 or the Warm Homes Plan, which applies to you?
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Short answer
They are different mechanisms, not one scheme renamed. ECO4 is an obligation on energy suppliers and closes on 31 December 2026, with no ECO5. The Warm Homes Plan is government grant funding and is already delivering through Warm Homes: Local Grant. If you qualify for ECO4 now, applying now beats waiting.
- ECO4 ends
- 31 December 2026
- ECO5?
- There will not be one
- Successor
- Already running
- Schemes merge
- From 2027/28
Very little content exists on this transition, and a good deal of what does exist tells people to wait for a scheme that is already open. That is an expensive thing to get wrong, because the scheme that is closing has a real deadline.
Side by side
| | ECO4 | Warm Homes Plan | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | An obligation on larger energy suppliers | Government grant funding | | Funded by | Suppliers, recovered through bills | The Exchequer: £15bn committed | | Status | Closes 31 December 2026 | Published Jan 2026, already delivering | | Delivered through | Supplier-appointed contractors | WH:LG and the Social Housing Fund, merging from 2027/28 | | Who qualifies | Means-tested benefits, or LA Flex referral | Low income for grants; broader for loans | | Loan element | None | Up to £1.7bn, low- and zero-interest | | Solar funded? | Rarely standalone; whole-house modelled | Yes, named explicitly | | Rules published? | Yes | Grants yes; loan detail still coming |
There is no gap to wait out
The framing you will see elsewhere: “ECO4 ends, then the Warm Homes Plan begins”: implies a handover with a date. There isn’t one.
Warm Homes: Local Grant has been delivering since April 2025 and continues through the transition. What changes in 2027/28 is administrative: WH:LG and the Social Housing Fund get integrated into a single low-income capital scheme.
How the schemes differ
ECO4 is a regulatory obligation. Energy suppliers above a certain size must deliver a quota of energy efficiency measures to qualifying households, and they meet it by contracting installers. There is no application to government; you are assessed and the property is modelled. Because it is quota-driven, suppliers pursue the measures that score best, which is why insulation and heating dominate and solar is rarely funded on its own.
The Warm Homes Plan is public spending: £15bn, up to 5 million homes by 2030. Two things make it materially different for solar specifically: solar PV is named as a supported measure rather than tolerated as a by-product, and the loan element reaches households that no means-tested scheme has ever reached.
There will be no ECO5. The supplier obligation model ends. The extension to 31 December 2026 was granted so suppliers could finish existing obligations and installers could remediate non-compliant work: not to expand the scheme.
Which route to use
Apply now, do not wait
- You receive a means-tested benefit and your EPC is D to G. ECO4 or WH:LG both fit, and both exist today.
- You live in an area within IMD income deciles 1–2: WH:LG has a pathway with no income check at all.
- Your heating is failing. Heating measures score highest under ECO4 and it closes in months.
- You are close to qualifying: ask the supplier or delivery partner for its intake cut-off rather than assuming applications stay open until 31 December.
Waiting makes sense only if
- You are above the thresholds and need help with upfront cost: the Warm Homes Fund loans are the first thing aimed at you.
- You want a published per-household grant figure, which does not exist yet.
- Your property needs work that would have to be done first anyway: use the time.
Do not delay an ECO4 application
Deferring an ECO4 application because “the new scheme starts soon”. ECO4 measures must be installed and notified before it closes, not merely applied for, so suppliers stop taking new work in the autumn.
A household that waits loses a scheme with published rules and arrives at one that was already available to them anyway.
Where each nation stands
The Warm Homes Plan is UK-wide in ambition but delivery is devolved, and the schemes named above are England-only:
- England: Warm Homes: Local Grant, plus ECO4 until it closes.
- Scotland: Home Energy Scotland grants and interest-free loans.
- Wales: Nest, which is heating-led.
- Northern Ireland: a different landscape entirely, outside GB schemes and with no Smart Export Guarantee.
What we will do when this changes
Every date on this page is tied to a government publication in the sources below, and the funding tracker carries a dated changelog of what has moved. The log is appended to and never rewritten: including the entry recording that we had the January 2027 claim wrong ourselves and corrected it.
Common questions
Is the Warm Homes Plan just ECO4 with a new name?
Will there be an ECO5?
Is there a gap between the two?
I do not qualify for either. Is anything coming for me?
Sources
- DESNZ: Extending the ECO4 end date: government response
- DESNZ: Warm Homes Plan (21 January 2026)
- gov.uk: Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant
Checked 2026-09-02. Rates, rules and eligibility can change. Confirm current terms before signing a contract or applying for funding.
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