All about ECO 3 - and soon, ECO 3.1!

The ECO scheme means that large gas and electricity suppliers – including British Gas, EDF Energy, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE – are obliged to help households with energy efficiency measures. 

Energy efficiency measures available through ECO include loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation and boiler replacement or repair. They're all designed to help save people money on their energy bills, keep homes warmer and help to reduce carbon emissions.

What is the Energy Company Obligation? 

ECO is the government's umbrella term for its programme to make houses in the UK more energy efficient. The latest iteration of the scheme is focused solely on targeting energy efficiency measures in lower-income and more vulnerable households.

The current scheme, called ECO3, was launched in December 2018. It runs until 31 March 2022 and is focused exclusively on those customers with lower incomes who are considered to be in vulnerable situations or living in fuel poverty. A wide range of benefits qualify recipients for ECO3.

In total, 6.5m households are eligible. The scheme’s plan is to make energy-saving improvements to 900,000 homes. Each year up to 35,000 homes with broken heating systems will have them replaced and 17,000 homes with solid walls will be treated.

ECO3 replaced previous schemes (with the same name) which ran for five years until December 2018.

Suppliers must deliver 15% of their ECO measures to homes in rural areas, and 10% of them can be installing ‘innovative’ products, such as devices to help homeowners manage their energy use.

Source:  https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/home-grants/article/home-grants/energy-company-obligation-eco#which

So although the scheme runs until March 2022, there will be various updates to the programme.  The first of these is expected to be in January 2020 and will be called ECO 3.1.  Ofgem uses these updates to tweak the system or requirements, depending on what has been achieved in the previous iteration, issues, complexities, feedback, etc.

ECO 3.1 is still in consultation and will be subject to parliamentary approval, so watch this space for an update once we know ourselves!