Great Britain has tightened the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) rules to spell out exactly which public grants cannot fund the same measure, removing doubt for households and installers. The amendment was made on 23 February 2026, laid on 24 February, and takes effect on 18 March.

Published on legislation.gov.uk as the Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2026, the change applies across England, Wales and Scotland with the agreement of the Scottish Ministers. It is made under section 33BD of the Gas Act 1986 and section 41B of the Electricity Act 1989.

Rather than referring simply to public funds, the Order now names schemes that count for this purpose: the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the Home Upgrade Grant, the Green Homes Grant programmes (Local Authority Delivery and Voucher), Warm Homes: Local Grant, Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, the Scottish Government’s Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland, Scotland’s Area Based Schemes, Scotland’s Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund, the Welsh Government’s Optimised Retrofit Programme and the Welsh Government’s Warm Homes Nest Scheme.

In practice, where a household or landlord uses one of these grants for a specific measure-for example a heat pump through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme-that same measure cannot be counted under ECO. Separate measures may still be eligible through ECO, subject to the scheme’s rules and a supplier assessment.

For social landlords and councils, this largely codifies the approach many already follow and should streamline checks on mixed‑funding projects. Clear signposting helps avoid duplicate subsidy claims and keeps reporting consistent across Ofgem monitoring and local authority audits.

The instrument also corrects drafting errors in the 2025 ECO amending Order highlighted by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments in its 37th Report of Session 2024–2026. It aligns definitions for pre‑installation, post‑installation and post‑project energy efficiency assessments across the 2022 and 2023 ECO orders so administrators and installers are working to the same terms.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero records that the Secretary of State consulted the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (Ofgem), the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, Consumer Scotland and energy companies before making the change. Because it remedies a defect in S.I. 2025/802, the 2026 Order is issued free of charge to known recipients of the earlier instrument.

If you are planning upgrades this spring, ask your installer to confirm which scheme each measure will be claimed against and keep that in writing. If a grant is paying for one element-say roof insulation via a Warm Homes programme-you can still explore ECO support for a different measure, provided you meet ECO eligibility and supplier requirements.

Installers and suppliers should update eligibility checks, customer journeys and evidence packs ahead of 18 March 2026. Aligning pre‑ and post‑installation assessments with the corrected definitions will cut rework and reduce the risk of rejected claims later.

Independent bodies such as the Climate Change Committee and Energy Saving Trust emphasise that fabric improvements reduce bills reliably and help low‑carbon heating perform better. Clearer funding rules should direct public money to those outcomes while giving households a straightforward path to warmer, cheaper‑to‑run homes.

No new impact assessment accompanies the Order as government expects no significant effects on the private or voluntary sector. For households and landlords, the headline is clarity: no double‑funding for the same measure, but multiple measures can still be planned across ECO and other grants-one measure per pot.