ECO4 vs GBIS: which grant is actually right for your home?

Two grants, both delivered by the same kind of installer, both funded by the same energy suppliers — and they get mixed up in conversation every week. But ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) do very different jobs, target different households, and pay out very differently. Here is how to tell them apart, and how to work out which one (if either) fits your situation.

ECO4 vs GBIS in one paragraph each

ECO4 is the full-depth retrofit scheme. It targets the least efficient homes lived in by households on qualifying benefits or in fuel poverty, and it pays for a whole package of measures — insulation, heating, ventilation — often with zero contribution from you. GBIS is a lighter touch scheme aimed at a much broader set of homes. It pays for one insulation measure at a time (usually loft or cavity wall) and the homeowner typically pays a smaller contribution.

ECO4 vs GBIS — side-by-side

ECO4 eligibility in plain English

Your household will qualify for ECO4 through one of three routes. If any of them describe you, it's worth booking a survey — even if you've been told 'no' by another installer in the past, because rules and interpretation vary.

1. Benefits route. Any adult in the household receives one of: Universal Credit, Pension Credit Guarantee, Income Support, ESA, JSA, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Pension Credit Savings, or income-capped Child Benefit.
2. LA Flex route. Your local authority runs a Flexible Eligibility scheme that picks up households sitting just above the benefits threshold. Every council in Essex, Suffolk, Kent and Cambridgeshire runs LA Flex.
3. Park-home route. Dedicated eligibility rules for park homes with different measure lists — we flag separately on survey day.

On top of one of those three routes, your property needs a current EPC rating of D, E, F or G, and you (or your landlord, if you rent privately) need to be the owner of record. If your EPC has expired, we lodge a new one for you at no cost during the survey.

GBIS eligibility in plain English

Here's the bit most homeowners miss — GBIS does not test your income at all. You qualify if all of the following are true, which means a significant slice of households outside the benefits list still get meaningful help.

• Your property is in council tax band A, B, C or D (England and Wales) — or A to E in Scotland.
• The property has an EPC rating of D, E, F or G.
• The property is owner-occupied, or privately rented with your landlord's consent.
• The measure you're after is on the GBIS-eligible list — loft, cavity wall, room-in-roof, flat-roof, underfloor, and solid wall in some cases.

Which scheme actually pays out more?

ECO4 almost always pays out more per household because it's designed to bundle multiple measures into one retrofit. A typical ECO4 job on a 3-bed semi in our area is loft insulation plus cavity wall plus new heating controls — an installed value of around £9,000–£13,000, usually with £0 customer contribution.

GBIS pays out less per home but reaches a much wider audience — roughly a third of all English homes meet the council-tax and EPC test. A typical GBIS install is loft-only or cavity-only, subsidised by £300–£900 against an unfunded retail price of £500–£1,300. Still very worth having.

How to actually apply — from first call to finished install

1. Book a free home energy survey. 45 minutes, no commitment, real person on site.
2. We pull your current EPC or lodge a new one if yours has expired — all at no cost.
3. We run the benefits, LA Flex and council-tax checks in the same visit, so you never fill in a form.
4. We match your property against the ECO4 measure list first, then GBIS as a fallback route.
5. We submit to the funding partner. Approval lands in 3–10 working days in our experience.
6. Install happens. ECO4 bundles take 2–6 weeks on site depending on scope; single-measure GBIS jobs are typically a day.

Red flags that tell you a grant quote is dodgy

• Anyone charging an up-front fee to check eligibility. Both ECO4 and GBIS surveys are free, always — no exceptions.
• Anyone saying 'this funding ends next week — sign tonight' to pressure you. Neither scheme works that way. We lock your eligibility in on survey day, not on the phone.
• Any quote that doesn't name the specific funding scheme, the lodged EPC, and the TrustMark + PAS2030 references for the installer. If those three are missing, the quote isn't properly accountable.

If you'd like an honest answer on which scheme (if either) fits your home, book a free survey online or ring 0800 229 4094 — Monday to Saturday, freephone from any UK number. If neither scheme works for your property, we'll quote a transparent self-funded price with the 25-year CIGA guarantee still on the install. No cost. No obligation. No pressure.