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
Yes — if you live in BL1–BL8 and either claim a qualifying benefit (Universal Credit, Pension Credit, PIP, ESA, Income Support, Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit) with an EPC of band D–G, or your gross household income is under £31,000 via Bolton Council's LA Flex route, you can apply for a 100% free ECO4 boiler replacement. Bolton is on the Cadent North West gas network — the same GDN that serves Manchester and Liverpool.
Pillar guides: Free boiler upgrade · ECO4 eligibility · LA Flex grants
BL1–BL8
Postcode coverage
Cadent
Gas Distribution Network
LA Flex active
Bolton Council
£0
Cost to qualifying households
There are two routes for Bolton households. Pick whichever applies — you don't need both.
Per gov.uk's Energy Company Obligation page, you qualify if you receive any of:
No qualifying benefit? Bolton Council runs its own referral route through the LA Flex Statement of Intent.
Bottom line: If your address is in BL1–BL8, you claim a qualifying benefit or fall under Bolton Council's LA Flex criteria, and your EPC is D-G, the eligibility check is a 49-second form.
Bolton's housing is overwhelmingly shaped by the town's 19th-century cotton-spinning boom — at peak in 1929 the borough had 247 working cotton mills, and roughly 108 still survive in some form. The dominant residential stock is the stone-built Victorian terrace, generally constructed from local Rossendale sandstone or red brick with slate roofs, original timber floors and cellars. These terraces fill Halliwell (BL1), Astley Bridge (BL1), Tonge Moor (BL2), Daubhill (BL3), Great Lever (BL3) and the Haulgh (BL2) — workers' housing for the surrounding mills (Sunnyside Mills in Daubhill, Grecian New Mills in Great Lever, and many more). Common building-fabric issues today include rising damp on streets near the River Croal and its brooks, failed lime mortar, lead pipework, single-glazed sash windows and outdated wiring. The post-war picture adds inter-war and 1960s estates at Farnworth (BL4), Westhoughton (BL5), Horwich (BL6), Smithills and Bromley Cross. For ECO4 the strongest catchment is the inner cotton-belt terraces in Halliwell, Daubhill, Great Lever and Tonge Moor — combined boiler-replacement plus loft top-up routinely lifts EPC band E or F properties two bands.
Total dwellings
124,000
as of 2021 Census
Private sector
—
owner-occupied + rented
Social housing
—
registered providers
Bottom line: Bolton's mix of pre-1919 and post-war stock is exactly the catchment ECO4 targets. The mandatory PAS 2035 retrofit assessment will confirm the SAP uplift for your specific address.
Cadent is the Gas Distribution Network operator for the North-West (and much of the Midlands and East England) — that includes every BL1–BL8 postcode.
~10 m connection
£500–£800
50 m+ connection
£1,500–£2,500
If your property is already on the gas main — most Bolton addresses are — there is nothing to pay. ECO4 funds the boiler, internal pipework, controls, meter installation, and safe removal of the old system.
Cadent's indicative pricing toolBottom line: Almost every Bolton address (BL1–BL8) is already on the Cadent gas main, so the connection cost is £0. The rare off-main cases sit on the outer fringes and pay Cadent separately for the new connection.
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 Bolton 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.
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 stone-fronted mid-terrace, three-bed, Rossendale sandstone solid-wall front, brick cavity rear extension
Existing system
EPC band E — 1998 non-condensing combi at end of life, gravity-fed copper pipework, no TRVs, original sash to the front, lime mortar failing on the front elevation
Measure installed
Old combi removed; new A-rated condensing combi sited in the kitchen; full system flush; new programmable controls and TRVs; loft topped up to 270mm; rear-extension cavity walls drilled and filled. Lime-mortar repointing flagged for a separate non-ECO4 visit.
Outcome
EPC modelled uplift from band E to band C; first-winter heating-bill cut of roughly £550–£750. £0 paid by the household.
Time on site
Boiler swap and cavity-fill completed across two days on site.
Illustrative — based on typical BL1–BL8 installs, not a single named customer.
Bottom line: Typical Bolton 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 BL3 Daubhill pattern above is representative.
Total install value typically £4,000–£8,000.
Most Bolton addresses are already on the gas main — nothing extra to pay.
Bottom line: If your ECO4 application is approved, the install is £0 — typical install value £4,000–£8,000. The only out-of-pocket case is a brand-new gas-main connection from off-grid, which is uncommon in Bolton.
Run our wizard or call +44 7375 868046.
A free home survey by an accredited assessor confirms the right measure for your property.
Gas Safe install, building-control sign-off, lodged on the TrustMark Data Warehouse.
Installer chain verified via TrustMark and Ofgem ECO4 Delivery Guidance v4.0.
Bottom line: From the 49-second eligibility check to a commissioned boiler, a typical Bolton ECO4 job runs five to seven weeks. The wizard above is the fastest start — or call +44 7375 868046.
Bolton homeowners (EPC band D–G) and private tenants (EPC band E–G, with landlord consent) whose household either claims a qualifying benefit (Universal Credit, Pension Credit, PIP, ESA, Income Support, Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit) or has gross income under £31,000 via Bolton Council's LA Flex referral. A cold-sensitive health condition can substitute for the income test.
Yes. Bolton Council operates ECO4 Flex referrals via the council's housing energy team. The standard £31,000 gross income threshold is supplemented by cold-home vulnerability indicators across the four Ofgem proxy routes.
Cadent Gas's North West network operates the gas mains across all BL1–BL8 postcodes — the same GDN that covers Manchester and Liverpool. ECO4 covers the new boiler, internal pipework, meter installation and removal of the old system at no cost. The connection from your meter back to the Cadent main is separate — Cadent publishes an indicative pricing tool for households needing a new connection.
Bolton's cotton-belt terraces — Halliwell, Daubhill, Tonge Moor, Great Lever and Astley Bridge — are typically solid-wall stone or red brick with limited cavity work to the rear. The strongest scoring measure is an A-rated condensing combi replacement plus loft top-up to 270mm. External or internal solid-wall insulation is in scope as a phase-2 measure but requires a PAS 2035 fabric assessment, and lime-mortar repointing is not ECO4-funded — it's typically a separate non-ECO visit.
Often yes — this is First-Time Central Heating (FTCH), one of the highest-scoring ECO4 measures because moving from Economy 7 storage heaters to a gas combi typically jumps the EPC two bands. The inter-war and 1960s Bolton Council estates at Farnworth, Westhoughton, Horwich and parts of Smithills were built with cavity walls and are mostly connected to Cadent's mains.
Sometimes, but with extra steps. Converted mill flats are typically EPC band C or D (the conversion tends to bring fabric standards up substantially) and may fall outside ECO4 scope. Where they sit at band D or worse with a non-condensing boiler still on the wall, an A-rated boiler swap is in scope. Listed-building consent often applies because of Bolton's many designated former mill buildings.
ECO4 closes 31 December 2026. After that, the £15 billion Warm Homes Plan takes over from April 2027 — funded by public investment rather than energy-bill levies, and delivered by the new Warm Homes Agency rather than Ofgem (gov.uk Warm Homes Plan, updated 18 March 2026). You may have seen the successor scheme called 'ECO5' online — that name is not used by government and no scheme by that title exists. For Bolton households, the practical effect is straightforward: if you apply under ECO4 before the 31 December 2026 close, the install is funded under ECO4 even if the engineer's visit happens in early 2027; if you start a fresh application after 1 January 2027, you'll be routed through the Warm Homes Local Grant (WHLG), the Warm Homes Social Housing Fund, or the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme depending on your tenure and property. Your local council's energy team continues to handle the referral throughout the transition.
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
Bolton Council — Energy Company Obligations (ECO4) page
last updated 2024-01-01
Bolton Council — ECO Flexible Eligibility Statement of Intent
LA Flex thresholds and vulnerability criteria
Cadent — new gas connection page
GDN-side connection-cost guidance
ONS Census 2021 — Bolton metropolitan borough (E08000001)
Dwelling counts for Bolton (2021 Census)
Bolton Council — Housing Strategy evidence
Regional EPC band distribution
Page reviewed: .
49-second form. No commitment. No cost. BL1–BL8 households on Universal Credit, Pension Credit, PIP, ESA, JSA, Income Support, Housing Benefit or Child Benefit — start here. Apply under ECO4 now (closes 31 December 2026); the Warm Homes Plan (sometimes searched as "ECO5") replaces it from April 2027.
