The ECO4 Scheme in Wales Has Ended. Welsh Support Hasn't.
ECO4 closed across Great Britain on 31 March 2026. But Wales is the one nation where that headline is least of the story — because the Welsh Government's Nest scheme still funds free home energy improvements for eligible households, and the £7,500 heat pump grant covers Wales in full.
Closed — 31 March 2026
ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme. No new applications anywhere in Britain. What happened →
Live — Welsh Government
Nest / Warm Homes Wales: free improvements for eligible lower-income households. Who qualifies →
Live — UK-wide, includes Wales
£7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme, 0% VAT on solar until 2027, Smart Export Guarantee. The Welsh angle →
What the ECO4 scheme did for Wales
Between 2022 and March 2026, ECO4 — the fourth Energy Company Obligation — required large energy suppliers to fund whole-house efficiency upgrades for low-income households across Great Britain. Wales had a disproportionate stake in it. Welsh housing is older than the British average, with a high share of solid-wall stone terraces in the Valleys and scattered off-gas properties through Powys, Ceredigion, Gwynedd and Pembrokeshire — exactly the hard-to-heat homes the scheme was designed around.
A typical Welsh ECO4 package combined wall and loft insulation with a heating upgrade, and in electrically heated or off-gas homes often added solar panels or an air source heat pump — all funded, for households on means-tested benefits in EPC D–G properties. Councils could refer households just outside the benefit rules through flexible eligibility, which several Welsh authorities used heavily.
That ended on 31 March 2026. Committed installations are still being finished, and our ECO4 closure guide explains how to chase work you were already approved for. But for new applicants the scheme is gone, and any website or cold caller suggesting otherwise should be treated accordingly.
The scale of what closed is worth stating, because it explains the volume of confusion left behind. ECO-funded measures reached tens of thousands of Welsh homes over the obligation's lifetime, and in some Valleys communities whole streets were insulated under it. When a programme that visible stops, word travels slower than vans — neighbours recommend "the free scheme" months after it shut. If someone has told you to apply for ECO4 this year, they meant well; the scheme simply no longer exists to apply to.
Why the post-ECO4 picture is different in Wales
Energy efficiency policy is devolved. While England waits for the Warm Homes Plan's successor schemes to take full shape, Wales has run its own programme continuously since 2011: Nest, the delivery arm of the Welsh Government's Warm Homes Programme. It did not end with ECO4, it is not a Westminster scheme, and its eligibility net — income, benefits, health conditions, and how expensive the home is to heat — catches many households the supplier obligation missed.
For eligible homes, Nest funds improvements at no cost: insulation, efficient heating systems, and where the assessment supports it, low-carbon technology such as heat pumps. It also gives free, impartial advice to any Welsh household, eligible for funded measures or not. If you remember being told you "just missed" ECO4, read the Nest guide before assuming 2026 has nothing for you.
On top of the devolved layer, the UK-wide measures apply in Wales exactly as in England: the Boiler Upgrade Scheme's £7,500 heat pump grant, 0% VAT on solar and energy-saving installations until March 2027, and the Smart Export Guarantee paying for exported solar power.
Find your route by situation
Lower income, home hard to heat
Nest is your first stop — free measures for eligible households, with health-based routes as well as benefit-based ones. This is the closest thing to ECO4 still running anywhere in Britain.
Oil or LPG heating, rural Wales
Around one in five Welsh homes is off the gas grid. Grant-funded heat pumps, insulation priorities and the realistic economics for stone-built rural properties.
Considering a heat pump
How air source heat pumps perform in the Welsh climate and housing stock, what installation costs after the £7,500 grant, and the fabric-first order of works.
Wanting solar panels
The honest position on solar funding in Wales in 2026 — what Nest can and cannot include, plus the VAT, export-payment and group-buying routes everyone can use.
A word about the adverts still using ECO4's name
This site is named after the search most Welsh households still type. We keep the name to meet that search with the truth: ECO4 ended in March 2026, and anyone taking "applications" for it now is either recycling an old page or harvesting your details. Genuine 2026 support is easy to verify — Nest on gov.wales, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme on gov.uk — and none of it charges an application fee.
Our own model, stated plainly: free guides, a free email-based funding check, and if you want a survey or quote we introduce one vetted installer covering your county — that introduction is how the site earns. Your phone number is never requested, so it cannot be sold.
ECO4 scheme Wales — what people ask now
Has the ECO4 scheme ended in Wales?
Yes. ECO4 was a Great Britain-wide obligation on energy suppliers and it closed to new applications everywhere — Wales included — on 31 March 2026. Installations approved before that date are still being completed, but no new ECO4 applications are possible. The Great British Insulation Scheme ended at the same time.
What free help can Welsh households still get in 2026?
The Welsh Government's Nest scheme (the Warm Homes Programme) remains live and is the most important route: for eligible households — broadly, lower-income homes that are expensive to heat — it funds improvements such as insulation, efficient heating and in suitable cases low-carbon technology, at no cost. Separately, the UK-wide Boiler Upgrade Scheme pays £7,500 towards a heat pump in Wales, 0% VAT applies to solar and energy-saving installations until March 2027, and the Smart Export Guarantee pays for exported solar power.
Is Nest the same as ECO4?
No, and the difference now matters. ECO4 was funded by energy suppliers under a Westminster obligation and has ended. Nest is funded by the Welsh Government under its Warm Homes Programme and continues. Eligibility rules differ too: Nest looks at income, benefits, health circumstances and how hard the home is to heat. Many Welsh households who just missed ECO4's criteria fit Nest's.
I live in rural Wales with oil heating. What applies to me?
You are precisely the household 2026 support favours. Off-gas homes qualify for the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme towards a heat pump regardless of income, and lower-income oil-heated households are a priority group for Nest. Roughly a fifth of Welsh homes sit off the gas grid — among the highest rates in Britain — and our oil-heated homes guide works through the options in order.
Can I still get solar panels funded in Wales?
Fully funded solar is now rare — it ended for most households with ECO4. Nest can include renewable technologies in some packages where they are the right answer for the home. Beyond that, the realistic 2026 position is discounted rather than free: 0% VAT until March 2027, Smart Export Guarantee income, and pairing panels with a grant-funded heat pump so the system earns harder. Our Welsh solar funding guide covers the detail.