ECO4 closes on 31 December 2026, and no new supplier obligation replaces it: the government "took the decision to bring supplier obligations to a close". What takes over is public money through the Warm Homes Plan, and one strand of that, the Warm Homes: Local Grant in England, already pays for solar panels in full. For solar specifically, less changes than the headlines suggest. ECO4 only ever funded panels in homes already heated by electricity, so if your home runs on gas it was never eligible anyway. If you are in a benefits-linked household and you want ECO4 work done, the next few weeks matter, because the measure has to be installed inside the scheme and not merely applied for.
What actually happens on 31 December 2026?
ECO4's obligation period ends, so energy suppliers stop being legally required to fund measures in homes, and no further ECO scheme follows it. Ofgem's own delivery guidance is specific about the dates: "The overall obligation period for ECO4 runs from the commencement of the ECO4 Order on 27 July 2022 to 31 December 2026 and is split into four phases", with phase 4 running from 1 April 2025 to 31 December 2026. It adds that suppliers "must meet their total obligation by the end of the scheme (31 December 2026)". Source: Ofgem, ECO4 Guidance: Delivery v4.0, paragraphs 2.2 and 2.4.
The companion scheme has already gone. The Great British Insulation Scheme ran from 25 July 2023 and the Warm Homes Plan confirms it "will end as planned on 31 March 2026". So from January 2027 there is no supplier-funded energy efficiency scheme operating in Great Britain for the first time since 2013. There is no ECO5: the word does not appear in any government document, and the Warm Homes Plan rules the model out rather than renewing it.
The nine-month extension that carried ECO4 from March to December 2026 was not extra money for new work either. The plan explains it plainly: the department "has consulted on extending ECO4 by 9 months, ending on 31 December 2026, without any increased delivery targets or impacts on consumer bills. This will allow additional time for remediation of non-compliant installations, to support an orderly closure of the scheme." Source: gov.uk, Warm Homes Plan.
Why is ECO4 being scrapped rather than renewed?
Two reasons, both stated in the Warm Homes Plan: value for money, and the quality of the work the scheme paid for. On the first, the plan says the government "took the decision to bring supplier obligations to a close, as these did not represent strong value for money". On the second it is blunter still, describing "the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), which was the source of the majority of poor-quality installations".
That matters to you if you already had ECO4 work done. The plan commits to fixing it: "We will continue to work with industry to ensure that any poor-quality work attributed to ECO is put right, at no cost to the consumer." It also names the mechanism, working with TrustMark "to support their delivery of audits to all households that received external wall insulation under ECO4 and GBIS so that faulty work can be identified and fixed". Solid wall insulation is where the failures concentrated, not solar panels, but the audit route exists for any ECO measure. Ofgem runs a published ECO4 complaints process and the scheme's end date does not close it.
Did ECO4 ever pay for solar panels?
Only in homes heated by electricity, and only as part of a wider retrofit, never as a solar grant on its own. Ofgem's delivery guidance sets a single hard test at paragraph 5.210: "Solar PV is an eligible heating measure where the heating system in the property, either before the ECO4 project starts or installed as part of the project, is a hydronic heat pump, a high heat retention electric storage heater or an electric heating system with a SAP responsiveness rating of equal to or greater than 0.8."
That one paragraph decides it. Under ECO4 solar counts as a heating measure, so panels only qualify where they cut the cost of heating the house. A gas-heated 1930s semi fails the test however bad its EPC is. The guidance closes the obvious workaround at 5.211: "A Solar PV measure should not be installed where there are plans to install a non-electric primary heat source", and non-electric heating cannot be installed afterwards either.
Three more conditions sit on top:
- Insulation first. Solar PV is a heating measure, so it is "subject to the minimum insulation pre-conditions" (5.217). In a band D home receiving a heating measure, qualifying insulation has to be installed as part of the same project or already be in place.
- MCS and PAS 2035. The installer "must be accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) or an alternative certification scheme", and the work must follow MCS requirements "and in accordance with PAS 2035:2023" (5.208 and 5.209). Measures must also be installed by a TrustMark registered installer.
- Batteries, but unfunded. "Battery storage can be installed during an ECO4 retrofit. This will not be added as a new measure type on the scheme and will not contribute to any ECO scoring" (5.220). A battery was something an installer could add, not something ECO4 paid for.
So if your home runs on gas, 31 December 2026 changes nothing about solar for you, because ECO4 was shut to your house the whole time. Our guide to UK solar panel grants sets out what is actually available instead, and the short version is that there has never been a universal solar grant in Great Britain.
What replaces ECO4?
Public spending through the £15 billion Warm Homes Plan, not another levy on energy bills. The plan commits "£15 billion of public investment to upgrade up to 5 million homes and lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030", and its funding table puts £4,422 million of that into low-income homes grants: £462 million in 2025/26, £960 million in 2026/27, then £1,000 million in each of the three years to 2029/30. The money arrives through councils and social landlords rather than through your energy supplier.
Three things follow for a household:
- The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the live route today, in England only. Your home must be "privately owned (either by you or your landlord)" with an EPC rating of "D, E, F or G", and household income usually "£36,000 a year or less", though a qualifying postcode or certain benefits can replace the income test. Councils "might suggest improvements like installing" solar panels, and the council "will then organise and pay for any improvement work they've agreed with you". Apply on gov.uk, and expect contact "within 10 working days" to arrange a survey. Our Warm Homes Plan solar panels guide has the full eligibility detail and the cost caps councils work to.
- From 2027/28 the low-income schemes merge. The plan states the intention "to integrate the WH:SHF and the WH:LG into a single low-income capital scheme which will shift toward area-based delivery". Area-based means your street or postcode may be targeted as a block rather than you applying individually.
- The consumer loans are not a route yet. The plan earmarks up to £1.7 billion for low and zero-interest loans and says the scheme "could be used to fund the installation of a single technology or package of measures. This includes solar panels and batteries". It also says eligibility detail is still to come. Until it lands, ordinary solar panel finance is what is genuinely on the table, and the rate you pay is what decides whether borrowing makes sense.
What should you do before 31 December 2026?
If your household is benefits-linked, contact an obligated supplier or your council now, and apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant in parallel if you are in England. Ofgem's homeowner guidance is the starting point: "You can contact any of the obligated energy suppliers to find out how they may be able to help you benefit from the ECO scheme." Eligibility runs off the benefits list, which includes Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Housing Benefit and Child Benefit, and you "must own your own home or have permission from your landlord".
There is a second door. ECO4 Flex lets local authorities and the Scottish and Welsh governments refer households that do not receive those benefits, including on a "combined gross annual household income under £31,000" or a qualifying severe or long-term health condition, and Ofgem notes your authority "may allow self-referral". Source: Ofgem, ECO for homeowners and tenants.
Be realistic about the calendar. An ECO4 project runs through a retrofit assessment, a designed package, TrustMark lodgement and then installation, and the scheme ends when the obligation period ends rather than when applications close. A referral started in December has very little chance of being installed in time, so ask the supplier for its own cut-off date rather than working to 31 December. The Warm Homes: Local Grant has no such cliff: its delivery window runs to 31 March 2028, so an application made now outlives ECO4 by over a year.
If you are not benefits-linked, nothing changes in January
You were never in ECO4, so the only solar deadline that applies to you is the VAT one, on 31 March 2027. HMRC's notice is specific about the end of it: "From 1 April 2027 onwards, supplies of installations of energy-saving materials will revert to the reduced rate of VAT of 5%." Solar panels are on the qualifying list. Note the fallback is 5% and not 20%, so this is worth a few hundred pounds on a typical install rather than thousands: the detail is in our guide to 0% VAT on solar panels. Source: HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6.
The other support is ongoing rather than time-limited. The Smart Export Guarantee requires some electricity suppliers, known as SEG Licensees, to pay you for the power you export, and Ofgem is explicit that those licensees "determine the rate, contract length and other terms". The spread between them is wide enough that picking well is worth more than most grant hunting: see current SEG rates. What a system costs you up front, and what it pays back at today's electricity prices, is the calculation that actually decides the job, and our UK solar panel costs guide has the current benchmarks.
ECO4's closure nation by nation
ECO4 is a Great Britain scheme, so England, Scotland and Wales lose it in December and Northern Ireland was never in it. Each obligated supplier's target is "based on its share of the domestic energy market in Great Britain". What stands in each nation afterwards is different:
- England. The Warm Homes: Local Grant, delivered by your council, and solar panels are among the measures it can fund.
- Scotland. Home Energy Scotland is the route, but its current funding table does not cover a standard solar PV system: the only PV entry is hybrid solar PV-T as a £5,000 interest-free loan with no grant. Heat pump support is £7,500 as a grant plus £7,500 as a loan, with a £1,500 rural and island uplift. Source: Home Energy Scotland.
- Wales. The Nest scheme is the equivalent, and gov.wales lists what it can fit free of charge as "a heat pump", "insulation" and "solar panels" for eligible households. Source: gov.wales, Nest.
- Northern Ireland. ECO4, the Smart Export Guarantee and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme all stop at the Great Britain border, so nothing changes there in December. The 0% VAT rate on installation does apply in Northern Ireland.
Anyone offering you a "government solar grant" in 2027 can be asked three questions: which scheme, which nation, and which gov.uk page says so. After 31 December 2026 the honest list is short: the Warm Homes: Local Grant in England, Nest in Wales, and the VAT rate for everyone else until March 2027.