Energy efficiency installations under the Energy Company Obligation

We recommend that DESNZ takes clear responsibility for its consumer levy funded schemes. It should publish an updated accounting officer system statement with its 2025?26 annual report and accounts to include how it gains assurance over the outcomes of departmental policy funded by consumers as well as the Exchequer.

We recommend that DESNZ clarifies its approach to remediation for ECO alongside its Warm Homes Plan, by starting to monitor and report how long remediation of affected projects takes, setting out a timetable for identifying and remediating other properties affected by poor-quality installations of external and internal wall insulation under ECO, and setting out the process for how households can get the work remediated, including in cases where they are struggling to engage the original installer.

We recommend that DESNZ reforms the system of consumer protection and quality assurance for retrofit schemes in response to the lessons arising from this report and summarised in Figure 1. It should set out an implementation plan for this reform alongside its upcoming Warm Homes Plan.

We recommend that DESNZ reports annually on a statistically robust estimate of the level of fraud and non?compliance in each of its retrofit schemes, starting in its 2025-26 annual report and accounts, and report how it is acting to reduce these levels.