The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) opened a consultation on the design of the ECO+ scheme for 2023 to 2026, dated 6 December 20221. The scheme is intended to sit alongside the Energy Company Obligation, and the government has committed £1bn spread across three years, with a target of reaching 410,000 households1.
Citizens Advice, which describes itself as the statutory consumer advocate for energy, published its response to the consultation on 6 January 20231. It welcomed the creation of a scheme aimed at a wider group of households, noting that many households who have not struggled previously with their energy bills are experiencing hardship this winter and would not qualify for the government's fuel poverty scheme ECO1.
The response sets out the scale of the scheme against the wider context of energy efficiency. Citizens Advice said the government's £1bn commitment over three years comes despite industry calls for a more ambitious scheme, and with expected supply chain capacity able to deliver measures equivalent to £1bn a year1. It also raised a design concern: while a single-measure approach will likely deliver at faster pace and larger scale, it could risk undermining the aims of ECO4 to deliver a whole-house approach to homes in fuel poverty, and homes that would be eligible for ECO4 and a whole-house retrofit should be treated by ECO4 instead1.
On costs, Citizens Advice said that even with the Energy Price Guarantee capping unit rates, giving an average bill of £2500, this is unaffordable for many, and that the guarantee rises in April to £3000 for an average bill in 20231. Its research found that households in the most efficient homes could save up to £950 a year if their homes were upgraded to an EPC rating of C1. On the pressure already visible, it said that by the end of October 2022 it had already helped more people unable to afford to top up their prepayment meter than for the previous five years combined1.
"The government has committed £1bn spread across 3 years, with a target of reaching 410,000 households."
Why it matters for households
ECO+ is aimed at a group that existing support does not reach: households that would not qualify for ECO, the fuel poverty scheme, but are facing bills they cannot afford1. For a home's energy independence, the practical effect of any scheme of this kind rests on what it pays for and how deeply it improves the property. Citizens Advice's response points to the difference between single measures, which it says will likely deliver at faster pace and larger scale, and a whole-house approach, which it argues should remain with ECO4 for homes in fuel poverty1. The bill figures it cites, an average of £2500 under the Energy Price Guarantee rising to £3000 in April 2023, and potential savings of up to £950 a year for upgrading the least efficient homes to EPC C, indicate the sums at stake for a household1. The consultation itself is the stage at which the scheme's eligibility rules and delivery model are settled; how policy of this kind is proposed and changed is set out in Energy Consultations: How Rules Are Proposed, Decided and Changed, and the existing obligation it sits alongside is covered in ECO4: The Current Energy Company Obligation Scheme. The wider landscape of grants and schemes and of insulation and glazing measures is where the practical detail for a property sits.
What happens next
The consultation is dated 6 December 2022 and covers the design of the scheme for 2023 to 20261. Citizens Advice published its response on 6 January 20231. No further dates for the scheme's launch or for the government's response to the consultation are given in the material available.