ECO4 loft insulation before the scheme ends

How ECO4 pays for a loft

ECO4 is not a pot of grant money you apply to. It is a legal obligation on medium and large energy suppliers to deliver energy-saving measures in lower-income and vulnerable households. Suppliers meet it by funding installers, who find eligible homes, assess them and fit the measures. That is why an ECO4 offer can arrive from an installer you have never heard of, and why Ofgem describes the scheme as “not a grant scheme”: different suppliers may offer different levels of support, and “in some cases, you may be asked to contribute to the cost of the installation.”

For you, the practical upshot is that “free” is likely rather than certain. Ask the question directly, before any work is agreed, and get the answer in writing.

Who ECO4 is for

There are two ways in.

The benefits route. Someone in the household receives one of the benefits GOV.UK lists for private housing: Universal Credit, Pension Guarantee Credit, Pension Savings Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Child Benefit or Housing Benefit.

The council route (LA Flex). Your council refers you because your combined gross household income is under £31,000, or because you meet two proxies of low income or vulnerability, or through a medical referral. See LA Flex.

Either way, the home must be in the right EPC band: D, E, F or G if you own it; E, F or G if you rent privately (with the owner’s permission) or from a social landlord. Homes rated A to C are outside the scheme.

The two ECO4 loft measures

Ofgem’s ECO4 delivery guidance (version 4.0, March 2026) describes loft insulation as insulation installed between and/or on top of the joists, and splits it into two measures:

ECO4 measure	What is in the loft before	What it means for you
Loft insulation, 100mm or less pre-existing	Nothing, or a thin layer	The main target: big saving, the job schemes are built for
Loft insulation, over 100mm pre-existing	A reasonable layer already	A smaller measure: small saving, lower priority

Where part of a loft is bare and part has a thin layer, the guidance lets the whole area with 100mm or less be treated as the bigger measure. Before any loft work, the installer (or assessor) and the occupier or landlord sign a pre-existing loft declaration recording what was there, and a copy is fixed near the loft hatch. Measure your loft before the visit so you know the declaration is right; loft insulation depth explains how.

Why ECO4 starts in the loft

ECO4 is fabric-first. Ofgem’s preconditions say that band E, F and G homes receiving any heating measure must first have the loft or roof and the exterior cavity walls insulated, and a band D home receiving a heating measure needs at least one insulation measure in the same project. Put simply, a poorly rated home will not get a new boiler or heat pump through ECO4 while heat is pouring out of an uninsulated loft. That is good for you: it means the loft is usually the first thing an ECO4 assessor looks at.

It also means loft insulation often arrives as part of a package designed to lift the home’s EPC band. You are free to decline measures you do not want. Ask how each measure affects the package before you say no, because dropping one can change what the rest of the package is able to fund.

The end date, honestly

Ofgem says ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026 after a nine-month extension, and suppliers must deliver their obligations in full by then. Our reading is simple: if you qualify, act this autumn rather than in December, because an assessment, a design and an installation all have to fit before the deadline, and installers need time to finish and lodge each job. We will not tell you that places are about to vanish, because we do not know how much capacity any supplier has left. Nobody outside the supplier does.

If ECO4 cannot help in time

• England: ask your council about the Warm Homes: Local Grant (income usually £36,000 or less, EPC D-G). It runs to 31 March 2028.
• Scotland: Warmer Homes Scotland for passport-benefit households, or a Home Energy Scotland loft grant of up to £1,500 for homeowners.
• Wales: Nest, for households on a means-tested benefit or low income in homes rated EPC E or lower.
• Paying yourself: the Energy Saving Trust puts a bare semi-detached loft at about £750, saving about £190 a year. See the cost guide.

The Warm Homes Plan says ECO is coming to an end and that low-income support will move to government-funded schemes. Loft insulation after ECO4 sets out what we know so far.