ECO4 in Wales Is Still Open — Until 31 December 2026.
ECO4 was due to close on 31 March 2026 but has been extended by nine months — Ofgem confirms it runs until 31 December 2026, so measures can still be installed this year. And Wales is the one nation where that is only half the story — because the Welsh Government's Nest scheme still funds free home energy improvements for eligible households, and the heat pump grant — £7,500, or £9,000 off-gas replacing oil or LPG — covers Wales in full.
Extended — to 31 December 2026
ECO4 runs for nine more months across Great Britain. The Great British Insulation Scheme did close on 31 March 2026. What changed →
Live — Welsh Government
Nest / Warm Homes Wales: free improvements for eligible lower-income households. Who qualifies →
Live — UK-wide, includes Wales
£7,500–£9,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme, 0% VAT on solar until 2027, Smart Export Guarantee. The Welsh angle →
What the ECO4 scheme does for Wales
Since April 2022, ECO4 — the fourth Energy Company Obligation — has required large energy suppliers to fund whole-house efficiency upgrades for low-income households across Great Britain, and it now runs until 31 December 2026. Wales has 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 was due to end on 31 March 2026, but the scheme has been extended to 31 December 2026, so new measures can still go ahead this year; our ECO4 extension guide explains what the extension covers and how eligibility is actually checked. What has not changed: any website or cold caller promising guaranteed approval, or charging a fee, should be treated accordingly.
The scale of the scheme is worth stating, because it explains both the volume of searches and the confusion around its end date. ECO-funded measures have 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 was announced to be ending, word travelled faster than the extension did — many pages still say it closed in March. If someone has told you ECO4 is finished this year, they are working from the old date: the scheme runs to 31 December 2026, and eligibility is checked by an obligated supplier's installer or your council's flexible-eligibility team.
Why the 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 does not depend on 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 runs until 31 December 2026 after a nine-month extension, eligibility is checked by an obligated supplier's installer or your council's flexible-eligibility team — never by a web form — and anyone promising guaranteed approval or charging an application fee is 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
Is the ECO4 scheme still running in Wales?
Yes. ECO4 is a Great Britain-wide obligation on energy suppliers. It was due to close on 31 March 2026 but was extended by nine months, so measures can be installed until 31 December 2026 — Wales included. The Great British Insulation Scheme was not extended: it ended on 31 March 2026 and is closed to new installations.
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, or £9,000 off the gas grid replacing oil or LPG, 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 is funded by energy suppliers under a Westminster obligation and runs until 31 December 2026. 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 Boiler Upgrade Scheme regardless of income — and at £9,000 rather than £7,500 when the system coming out is oil or LPG, 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 guide to solar panel grants in Wales covers the detail.
Find out what applies to your home
ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026, and Nest, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and county programmes run alongside it. Tell us about the home and we will say which of them it actually reaches.
What you get: an email, in plain language, usually within one working day, naming every Welsh scheme your home realistically reaches and the order to use them in. What we will not do: we do not operate a lead auction, we never ask for your phone number, and nothing goes to an installer unless you ask for a survey.
Not sure why we ask for each of these? We explain every field here.