Qualifying householders can access funding to upgrade heating or improve home insulation through the government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme.
Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a requirement placed upon energy companies to help improve the domestic energy efficiency of lower income homes. The scheme runs in phases and entered its fourth phase ECO4 in July 2022 and runs until 31 March 2026.
To find out if you are eligible for ECO measures consider searching a competent person register, such as TrustMark - Government Endorsed Scheme For Work Done Around Your Home, to find an installer that will assess your circumstances and property to identify suitable measures.
Many installers partner with Ofgem Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to deliver measures. You may be able to
apply directly through your energy supplier.
The availability of measures and funding is dependent on a number of factors including existing levels of insulation and the proportion of the home requiring improvement, condition and age of the main heating system and caps placed on certain measures.
Please note that the offer available may differ between energy suppliers and installers. You may need to be a customer to access support directly through some energy suppliers.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility is dependent on income and energy performance rating of the home.
Households need to meet energy performance certificate (EPC) requirements:
- Homeowners - Band D - G
- Private tenants - Band E - G (Landlords cannot typically rent out a property that does not meet the minimum E requirement under Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) legislation)
Householders
There are two ways you can qualify for ECO funding:
- In receipt of qualifying benefits (Affordable Warmth criteria)
Any member of a household needs to be in receipt of one of the following. Under ECO4, the qualifying benefits for grants are expected to be:
- Income based Jobseekers allowance (JSA)
- Income related Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)
- Income Support (IS)
- Pension Credit
- Working Tax Credit (WTC) or Child Tax Credits (CTC)
- Universal Credit (UC)
- Housing Benefit
- Child Benefit
Where applying through Affordable Warmth criteria your chosen installer/supplier will advise on seeking evidence of eligible benefits being claimed within the household, often this can be done with consent to a check through the Department for Work and Pensions.
If a member of your household is in receipt of Affordable Warmth benefits listed above, you will need to
apply directly with your preferred installer under these criteria.
- Local Authority Flexible Eligibility (ECO Flex)
At present, the ECO Flex schemes managed by Leeds City Council are:
- Lincoln Green District Heating scheme in Burmantofts
- Clustering for Warmth Project, Clusters 1 to 5
Our partners Cenergist will be in touch with those eligible householders.
Each applicant is individually assessed based on our published criteria, as set out in the Statement of Intent document, below.
Applications must come from the relevant council scheme, rather than the householder.
Flexible Eligibility or ‘ECO Flex’ is designed to allow councils to set criteria to assist those who would fall outside of the normal ECO eligibility criteria but may still need financial assistance to make heating their home more affordable. This eligibility route is only applicable to private sector housing.
Leeds City Council has published eligibility criteria for residents living within the Leeds area. Eligibility is dependent on a combination of factors such as income, property characteristics, health and household energy efficiency following guidelines set by regulator Ofgem and the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Accessing support through Flexible Eligibility
Leeds City Council are currently identifying the delivery model for ECO4 Flexible Eligibility (applicable to those under criteria 2 above). We will publish more information in the near future.
If you're in receipt of benefits, as outlined within criteria 1 above, you can still
apply directly through TrustMark government endorsed installers or
Ofgem Energy Company Obligation (ECO) contacts.
Third-party installers
We are currently investigating options to enable third-party installers to onboard with our ECO4 Flex scheme. Once this is in place further details including an updated Statement of Intent will be published.
If you are a provider or installer of ECO funded measures wishing to express interest in and request notification of future flexible eligibility initiatives, email us at fuelsavers@leeds.gov.uk.
