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
M1–M23
Postcode coverage
Cadent
Gas Distribution Network
Help to Heat only
Manchester City Council
£0
Cost to qualifying households
There are two routes for Manchester households. Pick whichever applies — you don't need both.
Per gov.uk's Energy Company Obligation page, you qualify if you receive any of:
Manchester City Council is not currently running an active LA Flex Statement of Intent. The benefits route is the only path here.
Bottom line: If your address is in M1–M23, you claim a qualifying benefit or fall under Manchester City Council's LA Flex criteria, and your EPC is D-G, the eligibility check is a 49-second form.
Manchester City Council's ~232,000 dwellings (DLUHC Council Tax stock of properties statistics, September 2024) cover one of the most varied stock profiles in England. The Victorian and Edwardian terraced belt of M13 Longsight, M14 Rusholme and Fallowfield, M19 Levenshulme, M20 Withington, M21 Chorlton-cum-Hardy and M8 Cheetham Hill is solid-brick with original sash windows, original chimney breasts behind 1970s tiled fireplaces, and 1990s non-condensing combis or back boilers still in service in a substantial share. The post-Blitz inner-city M15 Hulme is dominated by the redeveloped Birley Fields / Hulme Park stock that replaced the 1970s Hulme Crescents (demolished 1991-94). M22 and M23 Wythenshawe — Manchester CC's huge 1930s expansion estate, once the largest council housing scheme in Europe — provides a vast pool of pre-war semis and post-war low-rise blocks, much of it now under Wythenshawe Community Housing Group rather than Manchester Move. M40 Newton Heath, M11 Beswick and M18 Gorton add Victorian terraces and inter-war ex-council deck-access stock (the surviving Coverdale and Adactus blocks). The combination — pre-1919 Victorian terraces in the southern arc (M13–M21), inter-war / post-war social stock on the Wythenshawe / Newton Heath / Beswick fringes, plus a sizeable student-and-PRS sector in M14 Fallowfield and M20 Didsbury serving the universities — makes Manchester one of England's highest-impact ECO4 cities for back-boiler removal, combi replacement and first-time-central-heating, even with the LA Flex referral route currently paused.
Total dwellings
232,210
as of 2024-09
Private sector
—
owner-occupied + rented
Social housing
—
registered providers
Bottom line: Manchester'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 M1–M23 postcode.
~10 m connection
£500–£800
50 m+ connection
£1,500–£2,500
If your property is already on the gas main — most Manchester 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 Manchester address (M1–M23) 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 Manchester 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 mid-terrace, solid-brick walls, two-storey two-bed with rear yard and original chimney stack, off Stockport Road
Existing system
Late-1980s non-condensing back boiler behind a tiled gas fire in the front room, paired with an original Twentieth Century vented hot-water cylinder in the upstairs airing cupboard; no programmable controls; EPC band E
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 smart controls and TRVs fitted across all radiators.
Outcome
EPC modelled uplift from band E to band C; first-winter gas demand reduced by roughly a quarter; the homeowner paid £0 (qualified via Universal Credit through the obligated-supplier route rather than GMCA LA Flex, which was paused; EPC E was the deciding SAP-uplift factor).
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 M1–M23 installs, not a single named customer.
Bottom line: Typical Manchester 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 M19 Levenshulme pattern above is representative.
Total install value typically £4,000–£8,000.
Most Manchester 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 Manchester.
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 Manchester ECO4 job runs five to seven weeks. The wizard above is the fastest start — or call +44 7375 868046.
Not currently. Manchester City Council is one of 10 Greater Manchester councils covered by the GMCA joint ECO4 + GBIS Flex Statement of Intent v5, signed 15 December 2023 by Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of GMCA and TfGM. The SoI sets out the standard Ofgem framework: Route 1 (gross household income under £31,000), Route 2 (two of seven proxies including LSOA 1-3 deprivation, Council Tax Reduction, NICE NG6 cold-vulnerability, free school meals, energy-supplier or Citizens Advice referral, and three council-named schemes — Bolton Care and Repair, Warm Homes Oldham, AWARM Plus Wigan — which apply to those boroughs only), and Route 3 (NHS-identified cold-home vulnerability with income disregarded). However, GMCA has now PAUSED new ECO4 Flex applications: the three procured installers no longer have access to funding for new applications. The SoI remains in force on paper, but the LA Flex referral pathway is operationally closed in 2026. Manchester households can still pursue ECO4 via the obligated-energy-supplier benefit-only route — that route does not need the council's referral.
Cadent is the GDN for the North-West, including all M1-M23 + M40 postcodes within Manchester City Council. ECO4 covers the new boiler, internal pipework, meter installation and removal of the old system at no cost. The connection from your meter to the Cadent gas main is separate, but Manchester's dense Victorian-terraced street grid means almost every address is already on the gas main and there is nothing extra to pay. The rare off-main cases (typically newer infill plots on the M22/M23 Wythenshawe fringe) range from around £500 for a short distance up to £2,500+ for longer routes. Cadent publishes an indicative pricing tool — link from our gas-network section.
Only if it is non-condensing or broken. ECO4 is governed by Ofgem's SAP-modelled efficiency uplift rules — a working A-rated condensing boiler in a Fallowfield or Didsbury terrace will not qualify because the SAP improvement would be too small to score. A 1970s-1990s non-condensing combi or a back boiler behind a tiled gas fire — both still common across M13 Longsight, M14 Rusholme/Fallowfield, M19 Levenshulme, M20 Withington, M21 Chorlton and M8 Cheetham Hill — is the typical qualifying case. The retrofit assessment (PAS 2035) confirms the band uplift before the install is approved.
Yes — this is First-Time Central Heating (FTCH), one of the highest-scoring measures under ECO4 because moving from Economy 7 storage heaters to a gas combi typically jumps the EPC two bands in a single intervention. Most of the Wythenshawe Community Housing Group blocks (which inherited Manchester CC's huge 1930s expansion estate) are connected to the Cadent gas main at the riser even where individual flats are not yet metered for gas. ECO4 covers the boiler, the full radiator set, the pipework and the removal of the existing electric heaters. With GMCA LA Flex paused, eligible Wythenshawe tenants now apply through the obligated-energy-supplier benefit route. Expect three to five days on site with temporary heating provided where needed.
A landlord can decline the application but cannot evict you or raise the rent for asking. Manchester's southern student-and-PRS belt (M14 Fallowfield, M20 Didsbury, M16 Old Trafford) has one of the highest private-rental shares of any northern English city, so this comes up constantly. Private rental properties qualify at EPC band E-G (one band stricter than the D-G rule for owner-occupiers) and the upgrade improves the landlord's asset at no cost. With the forthcoming Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards uplift to EPC C looming for the PRS, most North-West landlords are inclined to say yes. Our installer team handles the landlord-consent paperwork.
From the eligibility check to a commissioned new boiler, a typical Manchester job runs five to seven weeks. The eligibility pass takes 49 seconds and we route you straight through the obligated-energy-supplier benefit pathway rather than the paused GMCA LA Flex route, so the timeline is unaffected. The PAS 2035 retrofit assessment is usually booked within ten working days, with surveyors operating across the inner-city terraced belt (M13/M14/M19/M20/M21), Cheetham Hill (M8), Newton Heath (M40), and out to Wythenshawe (M22/M23). The install itself is two to three days for a standard combi swap, longer for first-time central heating on the Wythenshawe estates or back-boiler removal in a Levenshulme terrace because the chimney has to be capped to building-control standards.
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 Manchester 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
Manchester City Council — Energy Company Obligations (ECO4) page
last updated 2023-12-16
Manchester City Council — ECO Flexible Eligibility Statement of Intent
LA Flex thresholds and vulnerability criteria
Cadent — new gas connection page
GDN-side connection-cost guidance
DLUHC — Council Tax: stock of properties (England), September 2024
Dwelling counts for Manchester (2024-09)
ONS — Energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales (2023)
Regional EPC band distribution
Page reviewed: .
49-second form. No commitment. No cost. M1–M23 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.
