ECO4 in Northern Ireland: why you can’t get it, and what to use instead

Quick answer: ECO4 never operated in Northern Ireland. It was a Great Britain scheme, and it closed to new applications on 31 March 2026 anyway. NI households should look at NISEP schemes, the Affordable Warmth Scheme (income under £23,000, grants up to £7,500) and 0% VAT instead.

Plenty of people in Northern Ireland search for “ECO4 scheme NI” every month. The short answer is: wrong country, and too late anyway. The longer answer is worth two minutes, because NI has its own funding and some of it is generous. All figures checked against scheme documents in August 2026.

Was ECO4 ever available in Northern Ireland?

No. Ofgem describes the Energy Company Obligation as “a government energy efficiency scheme in Great Britain”. It required large energy suppliers in England, Scotland and Wales to fund insulation and heating upgrades for lower-income households. Northern Ireland runs a separate energy market under its own regulator, and no ECO obligation has ever applied here.

The same border applies to several schemes GB websites treat as universal. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme covers England and Wales; the Smart Export Guarantee is GB-only. If you want the detail on how ECO4 worked where it did exist, see our ECO4 glossary entry and the complete ECO4 guide.

What happened to ECO4?

It’s winding down everywhere. ECO4 started in April 2022 and closed to new applications on 31 March 2026. A nine-month extension lets approved installations finish, so the scheme runs until 31 December 2026 and then ends, with no further extension planned. Even a Great Britain address gets you nothing from ECO4 now unless your application was already approved. GB households have moved on to the successor schemes we cover in what replaces ECO4.

Why do NI households keep seeing ECO4 offers?

Search for grants from a BT postcode and you’ll still find ad-funded sites promising free ECO4 boilers and insulation, some of which cheerfully accept Northern Ireland enquiries. At best they’re GB lead generators with sloppy targeting. At worst they’re collecting your details to sell.

An offer of “free ECO4 insulation” at a Northern Ireland address was never real, in any year of the scheme. The genuine NI schemes below have named administrators, published eligibility rules and no application fees. If a caller can’t tell you which NISEP scheme they represent, end the call and check the current list of schemes on uregni.gov.uk.

What should NI residents use instead?

NISEP is the closest thing NI has to ECO4: an £8 million fund paid for through electricity bills, with at least 80% ring-fenced for vulnerable households and a new list of schemes approved by the Utility Regulator each April. We’ve covered every scheme in our NISEP grants guide. The Affordable Warmth figures above come from the Housing Executive’s scheme pages.

Social tenants sit outside all of this. In Great Britain, social landlords retrofit through the programmes in our social housing decarbonisation guide; in NI the Housing Executive and housing associations run their own works, so the route is a conversation with your landlord, not an application form.

How does NI compare with the rest of the UK?

Every UK nation now runs its own stack: England has the Warm Homes: Local Grant, Scotland has Home Energy Scotland, Wales has Nest, and NI has NISEP plus Affordable Warmth. We’ve lined them up in our nation-by-nation grants comparison.

NI is currently the only UK nation with no heat pump grant open to middle-income households. That gap should narrow from April 2027, when the Department for Communities’ £150 million Warm Healthy Homes Fund takes over from Affordable Warmth under the ten-year strategy launched in February 2026.

But don’t plan your winter around 2027. If your income qualifies you for NISEP or Affordable Warmth, both exist today, and the sooner you’re on a list the sooner the work happens.

FAQs

Can I apply for ECO4 in Northern Ireland in 2026?

No. It never covered Northern Ireland, and it closed to new applications everywhere on 31 March 2026. Remaining approved installations complete by 31 December 2026.

What is the NI equivalent of ECO4?

NISEP. Like ECO, it’s funded through energy bills and aimed mostly at vulnerable households; unlike ECO, it’s approved annually by the Utility Regulator and delivered by named scheme managers you can look up.

Will the Warm Homes Plan cover Northern Ireland?

No, it doesn’t extend to Northern Ireland. NI’s own version is the Warm Healthy Homes Strategy, running 2026 to 2036, with its £150 million fund due to open in April 2027.