The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) and the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) are government energy-efficiency schemes in Great Britain, designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions. Both schemes run in their current form until March 2026.
ECO4 and GBIS were obligations placed on energy companies to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic premises. The schemes were not grant based. It was the responsibility of the energy companies to determine which retrofit projects they chose to fund, the level of funding they provided and the installers that they chose to work with. The funding was therefore paid directly from the energy company to the installer and not to the Council or resident. The Council’s role with the ECO4 and GBIS schemes is to check and issue declarations for eligibility of applicants. This report related to the delivery of ECO4 and GBIS to the private sector (owner occupiers and private renters).
It was considered that the Council would be better placed to achieve its aims if the current contract were to be terminated and the following approach be adopted. For information, under the terms of the contract, termination can be invoked with three months’ written notice.
RESOLVED that the existing contract be terminated and implementation of the proposed approach detailed in the appendix to the report, be approved.
Reason
The number of applications that the Council will receive is not yet known, but as an example if the Council received five per month, this would result in revenue income of £3,000 over the course of a year. Other local authorities have taken a similar approach and are charging installers for the checking of applications and issuing declarations. The Agreement with the existing supplier, also had a £50 charge per application written into the contract.