ECO4 IS BROKEN
Let’s help fix it
Retrofit upgrades can play a vital role in happier, healthier lives, whilst transitioning to a greener economy. However, according to Trustmark, 30,000 homes – a majority of upgrades since 2022 – have received botched insulation and ventilation, often leading to uninhabitable living conditions that worsen, rather than improve health and wellbeing.
ECO4 has been declared a ‘systemic failure’. And, we believe the scheme MUST be paused for recalibration in March 2026, before more damage is done.
What is especially shocking is that, not only is the current remedy of botched installations being poorly implemented – including the alleged ‘ghosting’ of homeowners by Trustmark – current investigations are solely into solid wall insulation – and not Air Source Heat Pumps, or other technologies, which are now believed to have been widely mis-sold.
Join the Retrofit Alliance
The Retrofit industry – and specifically ECO4 – needs urgent reform. Trust is failing, lives destroyed, fraud widespread.
To protect the industry and homeowners, we are forming a Retrofit Alliance.
How long before ECO4 ends?
Suffering an
ECO4 nightmare?
ECO4 requires larger energy suppliers to fund energy-efficiency upgrades for low-income and vulnerable households across Great Britain. Running from April 2022 to March 2026, it prioritises whole-home retrofit—insulation first, then efficient, correctly-sized heating—targeting the least-efficient homes (mainly EPC bands D–G).
Key numbers at a glance
Delivery is regulated by Ofgem and partners across the supply chain. Done well, ECO4 reduces fuel poverty, cuts carbon and makes homes warmer, healthier, and cheaper to heat.
The opportunity
For homeowners, ECO4 can unlock fully or part-funded works that cut bills, improve comfort and reduce carbon—when assessments are honest and installation quality is high. For local authorities and community partners, ECO4 Flex enables targeted support to those most in need. For Nature Society, the opportunity is to champion truthful claims, evidence-based design and quality-first delivery—helping households navigate a complex landscape and secure whole-home outcomes that last.
- Whole-house planning: fabric-first, right-sizing, and ventilation.
- Clear, plain-English guidance to avoid greenwash and mis-selling.
- Independent QA and post-install monitoring to prove impact.
ECO4 Injustice
Sadly, it is all too common for ECO4 installs to go very badly wrong. And, when they do, there is sadly a deep lack of protection for homeowners. This means, homes, finances, health and happiness are at risk, despite ECO4 being marketed at ‘no cost to homeowners’.
The following appears to be the norm – we can and must do better:
Incentives favour “measures,” not outcomes
Delivery partners are rewarded for installing kit, not for proving homes are warm, efficient, and cheaper to run long-term.
Fragmented accountability and ‘pass the buck mentality’
Installers, PAS coordinators, accreditation bodies (e.g., TrustMark/MCS/NICEIC), suppliers, and ADR schemes each point elsewhere—leaving households to navigate a maze with no single duty-holder for whole-home results.
Standards breached without consequence
PAS 2030/2035 “whole-house” rules (fabric-first, correct heat-loss modelling, right-sizing, ventilation, commissioning) are often skipped or paper-complied. Rectification is rare, slow, or superficial.
Opaque data
Little or no homeowner involvement in design process. Deep lack of transparency. Installers control the evidence (surveys, models, photos, commissioning data). And often fail to perform their duties under GDPR – leaving some homeowners to chase SARs for months or years. SARs also needed to gain essential information, such as the name of the energy company funding the works.
Weak redress
Even when householders can prove failure beyond any doubt, there is no organisation providing advocacy. Often accrediting bodies fail to ask for or analyse evidence and have limited resources to inspect properties. On the other side, they are granted greater privaledges, their word is taken on face value, SARs/FOIs are delayed or incomplete. Courts are inaccessible beyond small claims.
Alternative Dispute Resolution lacks teeth, offers little or no whole home PAS expertise, is capped at c.£10,000 (£3,000 realistically) and is funded by suppliers.
Vulnerability overlooked
Required checks for health/financial vulnerability and safeguarding are missed or box-ticked—precisely where ECO4 is meant to target support.
Widespread Greenwashing
Claims of comfort, carbon and cost savings are marketed up-front; post-install monitoring and truth-checking are minimal, and mis-sizing/mis-specification gets obscured in the paperwork.
Annual Bill Savings (ABS)
ABS and EPC improvements claimed without evidence of real-world savings or impact
Heat Pump Mis-Selling
To embody trust, integrity, and affinity, values must be deeply embedded in culture, far beyond a set of ideals.