By Giovanna Speciale, CEO & Founder of Selce

In mid-October, the news was full of stories about poor quality retrofit work installed under the ECO4 or GBIS schemes. The news articles featured photographs of angry people standing beside external wall insulation that was crumbling because it had been installed badly, allowing water to seep behind the insulation layer.

My heart sank because while insulating your home remains the very best way to reduce your energy costs and to provide long-term comfort, news stories of this kind erode trust in the retrofit sector and will no doubt make you think twice before considering insulation for your home.

So, here I seek explain a little bit about how the ECO4 and GBIS schemes in particular work, and to give reassurance to anyone thinking about accessing funding to insulate their home

ECO

ECO stands for “Energy Companies Obligation”. It is an obligation on energy retail companies such as British Gas, E.On or EDF to reduce carbon emissions in the UK by funding measures like insulation, new heating systems and renewable energy sources.

The rules state that ECO can only fund low income and vulnerable households. It’s important to note that it is not a direct grant to households, but an obligation on energy companies, who then decide which types of households to fund and what measures to install.

Energy companies always seek to meet their obligation at the lowest cost. They will typically do this by entering into agreements with commercial companies to install a certain number of measures at a certain price per measure.

Commercial insulation companies then seek to find eligible households where they can install at a cost that is below the amount they will receive from the energy retail companies.

GBIS

GBIS stands for the Great British Insulation Scheme and works in a similar way, but eligibility criteria are different, and it will only fund one measure per household.

It is paid for by a levy on everyone’s energy bill. The scheme is designed to use market incentives to enable the greatest amount of insulation for the lowest cost. The government like it because the funds don’t come from taxation and allow them to make progress toward carbon emission targets at no cost to the treasury.

The quality of the insulation work is monitored through a quality mark known as Trustmark (sometimes known as PAS2035). To get funding via ECO4 and GBIS, the installer company must pay a suitably qualified person known as a Retrofit Coordinator to assess each of the homes before during and after the work. They must lodge information and photographs of the work in a centralised database.

Three Issues

So, first, why do we get news stories like this? In my view, a major part of the problem is that installers are allowed to employ their own Retrofit Coordinator. In effect, those installing the insulation end up marking their own homework. We think this is a huge issue and that Retrofit Coordinators should be independent of commercial companies, representing instead the needs of the householder.

The second problem is that there are no geographical requirements on ECO-obligated parties. London accounts for roughly 13.1% of the total population of the UK. But there is no requirement to spend 13% of ECO or GBIS funds in London. For example, it costs more to install solar panels in London because of higher costs around traffic, parking, noise abatement, scaffolding, storage space etc. etc. There has been no formal analysis of the data, but the result is that ECO or GBIS-funded solar installation is effectively unheard of in London and quite common in other parts of the country.

The third is that the energy companies are always wary of overshooting their obligation: they don’t want to pay for more work than is necessary. Therefore, they tend to offer contractors short contracts and when the funding is gone, it’s gone – and what can be funded via this mechanism is constantly changing.

Selce’s Approach

So, what is Selce’s approach here? ECO4 and GBIS are hugely problematic programmes. But, as far as funding for home energy improvements, they are the only game in town.

Funding for our Future Fit Homes programme allowed us to develop ways of working that minimises the risk of poor installation and maximises the number of people that can benefit from ECO4:

💡 An energy advisor assesses whether you and your home could be eligible for ECO4 or GBIS during your home visit.

💡 If Alex, who is a Retrofit Coordinator agrees, we’ll refer you to one of two trusted insulation contractors.

💡 Neither of our two contractors have ever failed a Trustmark inspection and will work with you and us to make sure your home gets the most out of these schemes.

Could you be eligible for one of these schemes? First, you need to be a homeowner who fulfils the following criteria: