What’s Coming: The End of ECO4, The Start of The Warm Homes Plan

The UK government has now published its Warm Homes Plan, setting out how it intends to cut energy bills and upgrade homes through the rest of the decade. The plan was published on 21 January 2026 and brings together a mix of low-income grants, social housing funding, private rented sector reforms and wider support for clean heat, insulation, solar and batteries.  

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Where we are: ECO4

ECO4 remains the current supplier obligation scheme in Great Britain, but it is now due to end on 31 December 2026, not 31 March 2026. The government confirmed a nine-month extension in January 2026 to give suppliers time to complete existing targets and remediate non-compliant installations. The extension does not increase the scheme’s overall ambition; it is intended to allow an orderly close. 

ECO4 continues to focus on improving the least efficient homes and supporting low-income and vulnerable households, with properties generally needing to be in EPC bands D to G to qualify. It remains a whole-house retrofit style scheme covering measures such as insulation, heating upgrades and, where eligible, renewable technologies. 

The scheme’s minimum requirements also remain in place during the extension. In particular, the government confirmed that the solid wall and E,F,G minimum requirements will stay at their current levels and must be met by the new ECO4 end date. 

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What’s Changing: Warm Homes Plan

The Warm Homes Plan is now the government’s overarching framework for home upgrades, but it is not a simple rename of ECO4. Instead, the latest policy position is that ECO4 ends in December 2026 and will not be replaced by another supplier obligation. The government says extra support will instead come through grant funding, including low-income schemes in England such as Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund.

For low-income households, the government says the Warm Homes Plan now includes over £5 billion of low-income support, helped by an additional £1.5 billion announced at Budget 2025. Across the whole plan, the government says it has committed £15 billion of capital investment and aims to upgrade up to 5 million homes by 2030.

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Warm Homes: Local Grant

One of the main replacement routes for low-income private households is Warm Homes: Local Grant. This is an England-only grant scheme delivered by local authorities for low-income households in privately owned homes – meaning owner-occupiers and private renters – where the property is usually EPC D to G. It is funded at £500 million from April 2025 to March 2028. 

Eligible upgrades under Warm Homes: Local Grant can include insulation, low-carbon heating, solar PV, batteries, smart controls, windows, doors and draught-proofing. The scheme is open to homes on and off the gas grid.  

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Batteries, solar and other technologies

It is fair to say that batteries are becoming more central in the Warm Homes Plan. The Warm Homes Plan now explicitly highlights solar panels, batteries, clean heat and insulation as part of the future offer. Warm Homes: Local Grant guidance also confirms that PV batteries can be installed where they deliver bill savings.  

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What Households Should Know

For households in Great Britain, ECO4 is still live until 31 December 2026, so eligible households may still be able to access support through the current obligation in the meantime. 

For households in England, the Warm Homes Plan increasingly points toward grant routes rather than a new ECO-style obligation. Low-income households in privately owned homes should check whether their local authority is participating in Warm Homes: Local Grant, since delivery depends on councils and local schemes. By February 2026, funding had been allocated to 74 projects involving 271 local authorities, covering over 97% of eligible local authorities in England. 

Households should also keep an eye on technologies that may now be easier to access through these schemes, including heat pumps, solar PV, batteries and smart controls, especially where the property is in EPC D to G and the household meets the relevant income criteria. 

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Conclusion

The latest position is that the government’s Warm Homes Plan is not a rebrand of ECO4. Instead, ECO4 has been extended to 31 December 2026 and will then close without a successor supplier obligation. The policy direction after that is toward grant-funded support, particularly through Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, alongside wider reforms and universal support for clean heat and home upgrades. 

So the core message for households is still similar – support remains focused on warmer, cheaper-to-run homes, especially for low-income households and inefficient properties – but the delivery model has changed. The newest government position is less about a new ECO-style obligation and more about a broader Warm Homes Plan built around grants, local delivery, social housing investment, and technologies such as insulation, heat pumps, solar and batteries.