Recommendation 3

Households do not have real assurance the government will protect them from unaffordable bills when the original installer or guarantees do not cover the cost of repairs. Ministers have stated that no household should have to pay to fix the issues. The original installer is liable for fixing the installation and costs up to £20,000 should be covered by a guarantee when the installer has ceased to trade or fails to remediate. This process leaves some households unprotected. Remediation costs will sometimes exceed the guarantee cap. It should normally cost between £250 and £18,000 per home to correct the installation, but in the worst case we are aware of it cost over £250,000 to fix the defects and resultant damage. We are sceptical that the original installers and the guarantee providers will be able to withstand the potential scale of claims. Households have not yet claimed on guarantees in large numbers, but not all installers are complying with the remediation process, and some company directors are closing and restarting their businesses to avoid remediation responsibilities. The Department plans to bring ECO partners together to find bespoke solutions for the “very small number” of households it anticipates will not be sufficiently covered under standard processes. We find neither the Department’s proposed solution nor its downplaying of the likely scale 4 of the problem at all credible. Since we took evidence in November 2025, the government has announced that it will end ECO. There will be no additional obligation beyond the existing ECO4 and GBIS targets and no levy on bills from April 2026, although the Department is yet to confirm whether it will extend the period for suppliers to meet their existing ECO4 obligations beyond March 2026. We are concerned there may not be a big enough retrofit market once ECO ends to ensure enough installers remain viable businesses able to complete the remediation. recommendation Given the urgency of this matter, the Departm