Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations
Published 23 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Faulty energy efficiency installations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
It is not clear the future retrofit market will be big enough to sustain businesses to meet the level of remediation required. Since we took evidence in November 2025, the government announced that it would end ECO, with no levies on bills from April 2026. It said it would continue investing to tackle fuel poverty through its Warm Homes Plan but did not provide any further detail.53 In written evidence provided to us after our oral session, the Department clarified that it was yet to formally confirm 49 Qq 64, 66, 67, 147 50 Letter from the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero, dated 2 December 2025 51 C&AG’s Report, para 2.19; Energy Security and Net Zero Committee Oral evidence: Retrofitting homes for net zero, HC 453, 12 February 2025 52 Q 76, 78, 82, 83 53 HM Treasury, Budget 2025, 26 November 2025 16 whether it would extend the period for suppliers to meet their existing ECO4 obligations beyond March 2026. However, there would be no additional obligation beyond the existing ECO4 and GBIS targets.54 The National Audit Office report shows that ECO is by far the largest retrofit scheme, with over 300,000 homes retrofitted via ECO4 and GBIS by the end of March 2025.55 54 Letter from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, dated 27 November 2025 55 C&AG’s Report, Figure 8 17 2 Reasons for the failures Poor information and oversight
From: Public Accounts Committee, 62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations (HC 1229), 23 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 23 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, but disagrees with the recommendation to halt wall insulation installation without independent supervision and with the recommendation to refer fraud to the Serious Fraud Office.
- On wall insulation, it disagrees with the recommendation, noting that every household with external wall insulation under ECO4 and GBIS "is being and will be offered an on-site audit", subject to the householder accepting; internal wall insulation concerns are triaged and referred for audit where they meet "the threshold of risk factors".
- It agrees on the find-and-fix programme: TrustMark "currently intend" it to complete by May 2027, though the department states it is "unlikely" to deliver on a "significantly shorter timescale". It will update the Committee in writing every six months, first in June 2026.
- It disagrees with referring fraud across ECO to the Serious Fraud Office, stating that this "relates to an existing ongoing responsibility of the regulator", Ofgem, which can and does make referrals where appropriate.
- It agrees to publish an annual report to Parliament on retrofit schemes, with the first publication "before Autumn 2027", and "intends to consult" on the design of a reformed consumer protection system during summer 2026.