ECO4 Closes 31 December 2026 · Warm Homes Plan from 2027 | 7,000+ Installations
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💰Earn £100 Per ReferralBy Peter Davies, ECO4 Analyst
Reviewed
NI-specific guides: Affordable Warmth scheme (nidirect) · NIHE Affordable Warmth
BT1–BT17
Postcode coverage
Phoenix Natural Gas
Gas Distribution Network
Affordable Warmth
NIHE / DfC route
£0
Cost to qualifying households
Affordable Warmth in Belfast is referred-only: your local council passes eligible households to NIHE, who then arrange a survey and the install.
Per nidirect's Affordable Warmth Scheme page, the Department for Communities sets a gross household income ceiling:
Households can be referred by health and care professionals where someone has a cold-sensitive illness, regardless of the income test:
Bottom line: If your address is in BT1–BT17, your household income is under £23,000 (or you have a cold-sensitive health condition), and your boiler is unreliable, ask Belfast City Council's council energy team to refer you to NIHE's Affordable Warmth Scheme.
Belfast LGD had 162,357 dwellings on the NIHE Belfast Housing Investment Plan 2024 Update (April 2025) — the largest single Northern Ireland local government district, accounting for almost a fifth of NI's overall 841,827-dwelling total. Belfast's housing stock is shaped by its post-Industrial revolution growth and by the Troubles-era social geography that still segments many of its terraced neighbourhoods. The Victorian and Edwardian red-brick terraces of the inner city dominate the Falls, Shankill, Crumlin, Donegall, Newtownards and Ormeau roads (BT4, BT5, BT7, BT11, BT12, BT13, BT14, BT15) — solid brick or render-over-brick, with original sash windows, original chimney breasts behind 1970s tiled gas fires, and a substantial share still running on non-condensing back boilers or oil-fired systems. The inter-war ribbon estates along the Falls, Cregagh and Antrim roads add a pool of pre-1939 semis with poor cavity insulation. The post-Troubles social estates of West Belfast (Andersontown, Lenadoon, Twinbrook in BT10/BT11) and North Belfast (Ardoyne, Ballysillan, Glencairn in BT14) plus the South Belfast tower-block remnants (now largely retrofitted under NIHE programmes) account for a high concentration of fuel-poor households on the Affordable Warmth catchment. Belfast has the highest NI social-housing waiting-list pressure: 12,726 applicants at March 2024 with 80% in housing stress (NIHE). The combination — Victorian terraced inner ring, post-1945 ribbon estates, plus a sizeable PRS in the BT9 Malone / Stranmillis student belt — makes Belfast NI's highest-impact Affordable Warmth city for boiler replacement and oil-to-gas conversion, with NIHE's £7,500 grant cap covering most standard combi swaps.
Total dwellings
162,357
as of 2025-04
Private sector
—
owner-occupied + rented
Social housing
—
registered providers
Bottom line: Belfast's stock mix sits squarely inside NIHE's Affordable Warmth catchment — your Technical Officer survey will confirm the right boiler-and-insulation package for your specific property.
Phoenix Natural Gas is the Gas Distribution Network operator for Greater Belfast, Larne and East Down (Northern Ireland) — that includes every BT1–BT17 postcode.
~10 m connection
£500–£800
50 m+ connection
£1,500–£2,500
If your property is already on the gas main — most Belfast addresses are — there is nothing to pay. Affordable Warmth funds the boiler, internal pipework, controls, meter installation, and safe removal of the old system.
Phoenix Natural Gas's indicative pricing toolBottom line: Almost every Belfast address (BT1–BT17) is already on the Phoenix Natural Gas gas main, so the connection cost is £0. The rare off-main cases sit on the outer fringes and pay Phoenix Natural Gas separately for the new connection.
Affordable Warmth is the Northern Ireland equivalent of ECO4 — but the eligibility, funding and delivery are completely different. It is administered by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) on behalf of the Department for Communities (DfC), funded from the NI Executive's block grant. ECO4 (the UK-wide energy-supplier obligation regulated by Ofgem) does NOT operate in Northern Ireland at all. Belfast households apply via Belfast City Council's Affordable Warmth referral team (028 9029 0650, inside Building Control), which makes the referral to NIHE. The scheme has been extended to March 2028 and will be replaced by the Warm Healthy Homes Fund (WHHF) from April 2027.
Affordable Warmth (NI)Bottom line: Affordable Warmth via NIHE is the route for Belfast — ECO4 doesn't operate in Northern Ireland at all.
You may have seen the successor scheme called "ECO5" online — there is no ECO5. The government has abolished the Energy Company Obligation model and replaced it with the Warm Homes Plan — a £15 billion programme funded by public investment rather than levies on energy bills. ECO4 still runs until 31 December 2026, so Belfast households should apply now while the scheme is open.
Low-income grants
£4.4 bn
Warm Homes Social Housing Fund + Local Grant
Boiler Upgrade Scheme
£7,500
per household, clean-heat grant
Delivery moves from Ofgem to a new Warm Homes Agency, with the Social Housing Fund and Local Grant consolidating into a single low-income capital scheme by 2027/28. Northern Ireland's Affordable Warmth scheme continues; the Warm Homes Plan does not extend directly to NI, but Barnett Consequentials provide additional funding.
Sources: gov.uk — Warm Homes Plan (updated 18 March 2026); Ofgem response to the Warm Homes Plan.
Bottom line: ECO4 closes 31 December 2026. The Warm Homes Plan replaces it from 2027 — apply now while the current scheme is still open and the £4,000–£8,000 install value is fully funded.
Property
1890s mid-terrace, two-storey two-bed Victorian red-brick worker cottage, solid-brick walls with original chimney stack and rear yard
Existing system
Mid-1990s non-condensing back boiler behind a tiled gas fire in the front parlour, paired with an upstairs vented hot-water cylinder; no programmable controls; EPC band E; existing boiler over 15 years old
Measure installed
Back boiler decommissioned and chimney capped to building-control standards; new wall-hung A-rated condensing combi sited in the kitchen with a fresh balanced flue through the rear wall; old vented cylinder removed; programmable controls and TRVs fitted across the radiator circuit. Approved NIHE contractor installation following Belfast City Council Affordable Warmth referral.
Outcome
EPC modelled uplift from band E to band C; first-winter gas demand reduced by roughly a quarter; homeowner paid £0 on a Boiler Replacement grant under the Affordable Warmth Scheme (qualified via age 65+ with a 15+ year old boiler and household income under £23,000; NIHE Technical Officer recommended the combi swap plus the chimney capping).
Time on site
Two days on site for the new install plus a day for the back-boiler removal and chimney capping the following week.
Illustrative — based on typical BT1–BT17 installs, not a single named customer.
Bottom line: Typical Belfast installs deliver a two-band EPC uplift in a single intervention at £0 to the qualifying household. Your individual case depends on the PAS 2035 assessment, but the BT12 Lower Falls pattern above is representative.
Total install value typically £4,000–£8,000.
Most Belfast addresses are already on the gas main — nothing extra to pay.
Bottom line: If your Affordable Warmth application is approved, the install is £0. The only out-of-pocket case is a brand-new gas-main connection from off-grid — uncommon in Belfast but more common in the rural NI fringes.
Contact Belfast City Council's energy team on 028 9029 0650 to request an Affordable Warmth referral.
Northern Ireland Housing Executive sends an assessor to inspect the property, confirm the income / vulnerability route, and scope the works.
Gas Safe install by an NIHE-approved contractor, with building-control sign-off.
Prefer to contact Belfast City Council directly?
Delivery overseen by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive under Department for Communities.
Bottom line: From the initial NIEAS call to a commissioned boiler, a typical Belfast Affordable Warmth job runs six to eight weeks. The wizard above starts the eligibility check immediately.
No. ECO4 is the UK-wide energy-supplier obligation regulated by Ofgem and it does NOT extend to Northern Ireland. Belfast and the rest of NI run a different scheme called the Affordable Warmth Scheme, administered by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) on behalf of the Department for Communities (DfC) and funded from the NI Executive's block grant rather than from energy-supplier levies. The eligibility, application process, grant cap and delivery model are all different. For a Belfast household the Affordable Warmth Scheme is the route — there is no ECO4 alternative.
You must own your home and occupy it as your sole or main residence, or rent from a private sector landlord. Tenants in NIHE social housing or housing-association properties are NOT eligible (different NIHE programmes cover them). Your total gross annual household income must be under £23,000 (significantly lower than the £31,000 used by ECO4 LA Flex in England, Scotland and Wales). For boiler replacement specifically, your household must also include either a child under 16, an adult receiving Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, or someone aged 65 or over with an existing boiler at least 15 years old. NEA's Belfast Warm and Well Project (028 9023 9909) coordinates community outreach for vulnerable households who fall outside the standard income test.
Applications go through Belfast City Council's Affordable Warmth referral team in Building Control on 028 9029 0650, which operates under a Service Level Agreement with NIHE. The council referral team carries out an initial household assessment; if you're eligible, the referral is passed to NIHE. NIHE then sends a Technical Officer to survey the property and recommend the appropriate measures — boiler replacement, insulation, or both. Approved NIHE contractors carry out the install. You can also call the NI Energy Advice Service (NIEAS) for impartial pre-application advice.
The Scheme covers a package of energy-efficiency improvements recommended by the NIHE Technical Officer — typically boiler replacement (where you meet the boiler-specific criteria above), loft and cavity-wall insulation where suitable, and draught-proofing. The maximum grant value is £7,500 per household, which is significantly lower than the £4,000–£8,000 typical ECO4 install value in Great Britain because the scheme is targeted at single-measure or two-measure interventions rather than whole-house retrofit. Households are not asked to top up unless they want measures the Technical Officer has not recommended.
If you own your home (including under shared-ownership or right-to-buy) OR you rent from a private landlord, yes — and the BT11 / BT12 / BT13 inner-belt and the post-1945 West Belfast estates are a primary Affordable Warmth catchment. If you rent your home from NIHE itself or from a housing association (e.g. Apex, Choice, Clanmil, Radius), the Affordable Warmth Scheme does NOT cover you — but NIHE / your housing association run separate boiler-replacement and energy-efficiency programmes for their own stock that you should ask them about directly. The Belfast City Council Affordable Warmth team on 028 9029 0650 can clarify which programme applies to your tenure.
The Department for Communities has extended the current Affordable Warmth Scheme to March 2028 (from the original March 2026 close). A new programme — the Warm Healthy Homes Fund (WHHF) — will launch in April 2027 and run alongside Affordable Warmth for a transition period before fully replacing it. The WHHF is expected to widen eligibility and bring NI more into line with the UK-wide post-ECO4 Warm Homes Plan agenda, though detailed eligibility is still under consultation. If you're considering an application, the safest play is to apply now under the current Scheme rather than wait — the current £23,000 income cap and the £7,500 grant cap are the published figures; future scheme thresholds are not yet confirmed.
Neither. The Affordable Warmth Scheme in Northern Ireland runs until March 2028 and is replaced by the new Warm Healthy Homes Fund (WHHF), launching in April 2027 in a phased handover. The Department for Communities (DfC) confirmed the WHHF business case in 2025 — eligibility detail is still under consultation but the fund is expected to widen the income and property criteria from the current £23,000 cap. ECO4 (the GB-wide energy-supplier obligation closing 31 December 2026) does NOT operate in Northern Ireland. Neither does the successor "Warm Homes Plan" (sometimes searched online as "ECO5") which only extends to England, Scotland and Wales. Additional WHP funding for NI flows via Barnett Consequentials but is administered separately by NIHE on behalf of DfC, not directly by the new Warm Homes Agency. For Belfast households the route remains: contact your council energy team or NIEAS (0800 111 4455) for an Affordable Warmth referral, which transitions seamlessly into the WHHF when the new scheme takes over.
gov.uk — Energy Company Obligation (ECO4)
Qualifying benefits and EPC band rules
Ofgem — ECO4 Delivery Guidance v4.0 (March 2026)
Scheme closure 31 December 2026, measure rules
gov.uk — Warm Homes Plan
£15bn ECO4 successor scheme, updated 18 March 2026
Belfast City Council — Energy Company Obligations (ECO4) page
last updated 2024-04-01
Belfast City Council — ECO Flexible Eligibility Statement of Intent
LA Flex thresholds and vulnerability criteria
Phoenix Natural Gas — new gas connection page
GDN-side connection-cost guidance
NIHE — Belfast Housing Investment Plan 2024 Update
Dwelling counts for Belfast (2025-04)
NISRA — Northern Ireland Annual Housing Statistics 2024-25
Regional EPC band distribution
Page reviewed: .
Your Belfast City Council energy team can refer you to NIHE if your gross household income is under £23,000 or you have a cold-sensitive health condition. There is no online wizard for Affordable Warmth — the referral is handled by council and NIHE staff.
