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
Pillar guides: Free boiler upgrade · ECO4 eligibility · LA Flex grants
G1–G84
Postcode coverage
SGN
Gas Distribution Network
LA Flex active
Glasgow City Council
£0
Cost to qualifying households
There are two routes for Glasgow 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? Glasgow City Council runs its own referral route through the LA Flex Statement of Intent.
Bottom line: If your address is in G1–G84, you claim a qualifying benefit or fall under Glasgow City Council's LA Flex criteria, and your EPC is D-G, the eligibility check is a 49-second form.
Glasgow's 321,024 dwellings carry an unusually old footprint by UK standards. The city has roughly 9,950 pre-1919 tenement buildings containing around 70,000 flats — many still on single-glazed sash-and-case windows with original solid stone walls, which puts them firmly in EPC band D-F. Owner-occupation in Glasgow City sits at about 44%, well below the Scottish average of 64.4%, with the balance split across private rent (around 18%) and social rent (around 34%). The dominant ECO4 candidates here are pre-1919 tenement flats with ageing non-condensing combis, post-1960s system-built blocks in Drumchapel and Castlemilk running on electric storage heaters, and ex-Right-to-Buy semis with worn cylinders in Pollokshields and Mount Florida.
Total dwellings
321,024
as of 2024
Private sector
205,930
owner-occupied + rented
Social housing
—
registered providers
Bottom line: Glasgow'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.
SGN is the Gas Distribution Network operator for Scotland and Southern England — that includes every G1–G84 postcode.
~10 m connection
£500–£800
50 m+ connection
£1,500–£2,500
If your property is already on the gas main — most Glasgow addresses are — there is nothing to pay. ECO4 funds the boiler, internal pipework, controls, meter installation, and safe removal of the old system.
SGN's indicative pricing toolBottom line: Almost every Glasgow address (G1–G84) is already on the SGN gas main, so the connection cost is £0. The rare off-main cases sit on the outer fringes and pay SGN separately for the new connection.
Scottish households typically combine ECO4 with Home Energy Scotland — the Scottish Government's free advice service (0808 808 2282). The companion Warmer Homes Scotland programme can fund additional measures for eligible low-income households. Both schemes operate alongside ECO4; they do not replace it.
Home Energy ScotlandBottom line: Home Energy Scotland runs in parallel with ECO4 — the eligibility tests are independent, so check both before you decide which to apply for first.
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 Glasgow 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. The Scottish allocation comes through Barnett Consequentials and continues to flow via Home Energy Scotland / Warmer Homes Scotland.
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
Pre-1919 first-floor tenement flat, two-bed, solid sandstone walls
Existing system
Mid-1990s non-condensing combi venting through the original chimney, single-glazed sash windows; EPC band F
Measure installed
New A-rated condensing combi sited in the kitchen with a balanced flue; existing radiators retained but TRVs and a programmable thermostat added. The window upgrade was scoped separately because ECO4 does not fund glazing in isolation.
Outcome
EPC modelled uplift from band F to band D in a single visit; pre-install annual gas demand modelled at 11,200 kWh, post-install 8,400 kWh. Eligibility flowed via the SIMD data-zone route — household was not on benefits, gross income just over £40k, but address sits in SIMD decile 2.
Time on site
One day on site for the boiler swap, plus a flue-survey visit the week before.
Illustrative — based on typical G1–G84 installs, not a single named customer.
Bottom line: Typical Glasgow 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 G12 Hillhead pattern above is representative.
Total install value typically £4,000–£8,000.
Most Glasgow 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 Glasgow.
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.
Prefer to contact Glasgow City Council directly?
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 Glasgow ECO4 job runs five to seven weeks. The wizard above is the fastest start — or call +44 7375 868046.
Yes. Unlike most English councils which set a gross income cap (typically £31,000), Glasgow City Council operates LA Flex through three proxy approaches set out in its November 2022 Statement of Intent: living in a Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 data zone 1, 2 or 3; receiving Council Tax Reduction on low-income grounds; or being identified as cold-home vulnerable under NICE Guidance. Apply through the Affordable Warmth team at affordablewarmth@glasgow.gov.uk. EPC band must be D-G in all cases.
Home Energy Scotland is the Scottish Government's free, impartial advice service (0808 808 2282). It runs alongside ECO4, not instead of it. A typical Glasgow application starts with a Home Energy Scotland call for tailored advice, then proceeds through the ECO4 supplier chain for the actual installation. The companion Warmer Homes Scotland programme can fund additional measures (insulation, draught-proofing) for eligible low-income households where ECO4 leaves a gap.
SGN (Scotland Gas Networks) is the GDN for all G1-G84 postcodes. SGN's published Scotland connection charges are typically £2,000 mains contribution plus around £893 plus VAT per service connection for properties within 20 metres of an existing main (figures from SGN's Scotland Connections Service Charges, 2023 schedule). For eligible low-income households SGN's Help to Heat scheme offers funded or reduced-cost connections — often combined with the ECO4-funded internal work to produce a near-zero out-of-pocket project.
Yes, provided the existing boiler is either non-condensing or broken. Pre-1919 tenement flats — about 70,000 of them across Glasgow — are some of the strongest ECO4 candidates because the surrounding solid-stone walls and original windows usually push the EPC into band E or F, and a modern condensing boiler combined with control upgrades produces a measurable SAP improvement. The shared chimney and flue routing on tenements does need careful design — your PAS 2030 installer will site the flue per the Building Standards for Scotland.
Sometimes. The check is whether the block is on the gas main and whether the riser pipework can be added safely. Glasgow's 1960s-70s system-built tower blocks vary — some have a gas riser already, others are all-electric by design. If a gas central heating retrofit is feasible, ECO4's First-Time Central Heating measure covers the boiler, radiators, pipework and storage-heater removal at no cost to the household. If the block is genuinely all-electric, the alternative under ECO4 is an air-source heat pump, sized to the flat.
The Ofgem-administered ECO4 scheme is UK-wide and the rules are identical, but the surrounding ecosystem differs. In Scotland, Home Energy Scotland (Scottish Government) and the Warmer Homes Scotland programme run in parallel. Building standards diverge (Scottish Building Standards rather than England's Building Regulations Part L), which affects flue siting and ventilation on tenement work. Northern Ireland is the outlier — ECO4 does not operate there at all; NI households use the Affordable Warmth scheme through the Department for Communities.
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 Glasgow 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
Glasgow City Council — Energy Company Obligations (ECO4) page
last updated 2022-11-21
Glasgow City Council — ECO Flexible Eligibility Statement of Intent
LA Flex thresholds and vulnerability criteria
SGN — new gas connection page
GDN-side connection-cost guidance
Scottish Government — Housing Statistics 2024 (Stock by Tenure)
Dwelling counts for Glasgow (2024)
Page reviewed: .
49-second form. No commitment. No cost. G1–G84 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.
