How to Get More Insulation Customers as ECO4 Ends

How UK insulation installers find customers as ECO4 ends: council grant work, TrustMark, trade partners, Google, private jobs and bought leads.

Hugo BibbyPublished 2 November 202620 min read

Insulation installers get more customers by building the routes that reach homeowners and landlords paying for their own insulation: trades that see lofts and walls before you do, past customers, a TrustMark registration and a Google profile homeowners can check, your own ads and bought leads. Funded work is shifting at the same time: Ofgem says ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026, the government says no supplier obligation will follow it, and grant money now goes mainly through councils and social landlords.

Two things about insulation shape every route. The finished work disappears under boards and behind render, so it rarely sells the next job by itself. And every enquiry costs a survey before you know whether it's a job. Below: the funded schemes as they stand, the accreditation each kind of work needs, the free and paid routes, a cost-per-job sum that counts surveys, and a call script.

Where do insulation customers come from now?

Some routes cost money, some cost time, and the funded ones now come with an end date or a narrow eligibility rule.

What replaces ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme?

Nothing replaces them like for like. This is where funded insulation stood on 2 November 2026.

• ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026. Ofgem administers it for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It covers measures installed from 1 April 2022 and, after a nine-month extension, runs until 31 December 2026 (Ofgem, ECO). To deliver ECO4 measures, an installer needs to contact an obligated supplier and must be a TrustMark registered business (Ofgem, ECO supply chain).
• No supplier obligation follows it. The government's response on extending ECO4, updated 23 January 2026, says "there will be no successor supplier obligation to ECO4" and commits £1.5bn of extra grant funding for low-income households instead (GOV.UK).
• The Great British Insulation Scheme has closed. It ran from April 2023 to 31 March 2026, and is closed to new installations (Ofgem, GBIS).
• Council grants carry on in England. The Warm Homes: Local Grant is delivered by local authorities to low-income households in privately owned homes, owner-occupied or privately rented, with an EPC between D and G. Occupants don't contribute to the cost. Its policy guidance, updated in July 2026, closes the delivery window on 31 March 2028.
• Social homes have their own fund. The Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 funds local authorities and social housing landlords to improve the energy performance of social homes in England. It's closed to applications, so its work is with landlords that already hold funding.
• Then one low-income scheme. The Warm Homes Plan says the government intends to merge the Local Grant and the Social Housing Fund into a single low-income scheme from 2027/28, shifting towards area-based delivery. A minister's speech on 25 June 2026 put it "from 2028". We couldn't find the new scheme's rules published.
• Insulation shares the funding. The plan says its low-income schemes will support "in particular solar PV, batteries, cost effective insulation where necessary, and smart controls", and that solid wall insulation has become less viable after supply chain cost increases.
• The new loans leave insulation out. The Warm Homes Loan Scheme factsheet, published on 27 October 2026, lists no- and low-interest loans for solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, biomass boilers, heat network connections and micro-renewable systems. Insulation isn't on the list.

Put together: funded insulation in England is narrowing to council and social landlord programmes for low-income homes, won through their procurement and contractors. Most other households will pay for it themselves, and the rest of this guide is about reaching them.

Do you need TrustMark and PAS 2035 for insulation work?

For funded work, yes. For private work, no, though the government recommends both.

For funded work

The Warm Homes Plan says that for energy efficiency measures under the department's schemes, installers must be certified to PAS 2030, installations must comply with PAS 2035, and installers must be TrustMark registered (or equivalent) and join a relevant certification body. The Local Grant's policy guidance adds that every measure must be lodged on the TrustMark data warehouse.

PAS 2035 changes how the job runs. The same guidance calls it a specification for "whole-house" retrofit, with a retrofit coordinator responsible for overseeing the assessment of the home, the choice and specification of measures, and their inspection and evaluation. It also says RISE, the free technical support the government provides for the Local Grant, is open to supply chain companies trying to secure PAS 2035/2030, TrustMark and MCS accreditation.

For private work

The Warm Homes Plan's table of standards marks TrustMark accreditation and work to PAS 2030/2035 as "Required" under a government scheme and "Not required (but recommended)" outside one. Building regulations are a legal requirement either way. Cavity wall insulation, for example, is notifiable building work, so a building notice goes to building control, and the Planning Portal says an installer registered with the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency will in most cases submit it.

Registering still pays on private work, because homeowners have reason to ask who checks you. The Warm Homes Plan reports that audits of solid wall insulation under ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme found 92% of external wall insulation installations had at least one major technical non-compliance.

Listings homeowners and councils check

• TrustMark calls itself the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme for work a consumer chooses to have done in or around their home. Its find a tradesperson search asks what you need and where you are. Registered businesses must be with one of its Scheme Providers, which include the Installation Assurance Authority, described as an independent body providing assurance for insulation works.
• The National Insulation Association's find an installer directory lets homeowners search by postcode or town and by type of insulation. The NIA says its installer members are advertised there, and that membership "is a new stipulation in many modern tenders". Installer membership costs £995 plus VAT a year below £2.5m turnover (membership).

How do you find insulation customers who pay for themselves?

Start with the people already working on the house. Insulation often comes up halfway through another job, and some of those jobs bring building regulations with them.

Roofers and loft conversion builders

The Planning Portal's loft insulation guidance says that where more than 25 per cent of a roof is being renewed, loft insulation fitted as part of the project should meet the standards in the building regulations Approved Documents. A roofer on a big re-roof has a reason to bring you in. Before the first job, agree who quotes the insulation, who deals with building control and the order of work.

Renderers and builders working on walls

For solid walls, the Planning Portal says that where 25 per cent or more of an external wall is being renovated, building regulations would normally apply, and the wall's insulation would have to meet the Approved Documents' standards. Renderers, and builders replacing render or cladding, meet homeowners at exactly that point. The Planning Portal's planning guidance for insulation also says to consult the local planning authority if the building is listed or in a conservation area.

Landlords, through letting agents

The government's response on privately rented homes, updated 21 January 2026, says private landlords in England and Wales will need every tenancy at EPC C, on new EPC metrics, by 1 October 2030, and that £10,000 is the most they'll be required to invest over ten years. Its timeline counts spending on relevant improvements from 1 October 2025 towards that cap. The changes are subject to Parliamentary approval, with the regulations aimed to come into force in 2027.

Letting agents look after the landlords who'll need this. Offer to go through what a property's EPC recommends and what you'd fit, and don't present the 2030 standard as law until it is.

Heat pump and solar installers

Their surveys take them into lofts and round the outside walls, and their customers are already spending on the house. Agree in writing who contacts the homeowner, who pays any fee and when, and make sure the homeowner has agreed to hear from you before their details change hands.

Past customers

Once the boards go back down, nobody sees the work, so neighbours won't ask about it the way they ask about new windows. Put the referral ask into handover: show the customer the photos you took during the job, leave two cards, and ask who else they know who has talked about their loft or walls. Before you email or text past customers about another job, check the soft opt-in rules in our guide to getting more home improvement customers.

How do you get more insulation customers from Google?

Your Google Business Profile should be set up for a firm that travels to customers. Google's guidelines say a service-area business should hide its address and keep one profile for its central base, with a designated service area no more than about two hours' drive away. They also say to "use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business". So Rennerby Insulation, an invented installer, is one insulation business on Google, not separate listings for loft, cavity and wall work. Those belong in its services, and on its website, one page each.

Google's help on local ranking says results are "mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity". It describes prominence as how well known a business is, partly from how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has, and says "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

Plan your photos, because the finished job can't be seen. Take them while you work: the loft before and after, with a tape measure in shot; the drilling on a cavity fill before it's made good; each stage of a render system. Ask the homeowner first, and keep house numbers out of the frame.

For reviews, Google suggests a link or QR code. Its contribution policy rules out paying for reviews or offering discounts or free work for them, discouraging negative reviews, and picking only the customers likely to leave a good one. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, the CMA's guidance bans submitting or commissioning fake reviews, or reviews that conceal an incentive, for practices from 6 April 2025. A natural time to ask is when you send the job's paperwork, your last contact about the job.

How does lead generation for insulation companies work?

Either you run campaigns yourself, or you buy enquiries from someone who does. Both depend on an ad that's honest about what's on offer, and insulation ads have a record.

In its ECO4U Ltd ruling of 11 December 2024, the ASA upheld complaints about Facebook ads saying "Up to £70,000 free funding is now available" beside HM Government and "GOV.UK ECO4 Scheme" logos. The ads implied government endorsement, and didn't make clear the advertiser was primarily a lead generator passing details to installers. The ASA's advice on lead generation marketing says anyone advertising a scheme should "hold robust evidence to prove that it is genuine and available as advertised".

If you run campaigns yourself:

1. Sell the job, not a grant. "Loft and cavity wall insulation, subject to a survey", not "free insulation".
2. Screen on the form. Owner or landlord, the walls they think they have, roughly what's in the loft, whether the cavity has been filled before, and whether the house is listed or in a conservation area. Lead qualification questions sets out which questions belong on the form and which on the call.
3. Ring fast, and learn from surveys. Get consent for WhatsApp or text if you'll use them, call within minutes (speed to lead), and tell the ad platforms which enquiries booked a survey (the lead feedback loop).

The cavity question earns its place. The Warm Homes Plan cites estimates that by the end of 2024, 71% of homes in Great Britain with cavity walls had cavity insulation, and 10% of homes with solid walls had solid wall insulation. An ad for cavity fill reaches plenty of homes filled years ago, and each one you survey costs a visit.

Are loft insulation leads worth buying?

They can be, when the job pays for the lead. Buy when you have survey slots the free routes aren't filling, someone who can ring within minutes, and a survey-to-job rate you know for each kind of insulation. Don't when the survey diary is already full for a month, or when you can't tell which route each job came from.

The job sets the price. In POCKLA's indicative £20–£80 band, loft and cavity wall leads sit at the low end and external and internal wall leads at the top. Our guide to what insulation leads cost sets out suppliers' published prices job by job, and our comparison of insulation lead suppliers covers who gets each lead and what's checked.

Four questions matter more in insulation than in most trades:

• Self-funded or scheme-funded? A homeowner expecting free insulation starts the call in the wrong place. If a supplier sells scheme leads, ask what it will send after ECO4 ends.
• Which job? A loft lead and an external wall lead are different products, so get a price for each.
• What does the lead say about the home, and who said it? A homeowner's description of their walls isn't a survey.
• Who else gets it, and what counts as a bad lead? Exclusive vs shared leads covers the first part.

Which route gives the cheapest insulation job?

Add up money, hours and surveys for each route, then divide by the jobs it won:

Cost per job = (spend + hours × your hourly cost + surveys × your cost per survey) ÷ jobs won

Here's Rennerby Insulation, an invented loft and cavity wall installer, over three months. It puts an hour at £40 and a survey at £50 of surveyor time and travel. Every figure is invented to show the method; none is POCKLA data or a prediction for any route.

Partners give the cheapest jobs, but only as many as partners see. Between the other two, the survey line nearly closes the gap. Leave it out and the ads look about a quarter cheaper, £350 a job against £475. Count it and they're £25 apart, because the ads needed twice as many surveys for the same eight jobs. Had a question about whether the cavity was already filled saved eight of those surveys, the ads would come to £500 a job.

For your own version, record where every enquiry came from, log spend, hours and surveys by route each month, and note why each survey that didn't become a job failed. Cost per lead vs cost per job breaks the sum into the contact, survey and close rates behind it.

What should you say on the first call to an insulation enquiry?

Whichever route it came from, the first call decides whether an enquiry becomes a survey. Here's Rennerby Insulation calling Emma, an invented homeowner who asked about loft insulation. Make it sound like you, and where the form has answered something, check it rather than asking again.

1. Introduce yourself

"Hello, Emma? This is Priya, from Rennerby Insulation. You were asking about loft insulation for your house in Norwich last night. Is now OK for five minutes, or shall I call back?"

2. Check the form

"You said it's a 1960s terrace, and the loft insulation is old and thin, with some boards down. Still right?"

3. Fill the gaps

1. "Why the loft, and why now?" A cold bedroom, a re-roof, or selling or letting the house each change what you'll quote, and when.
2. "Do you store things up there, and do you want to carry on?" Boards and storage change the job and the price.
3. "Is any roof work planned?" On a big re-roof, the building regulations point above applies, so the order of work matters.
4. "Do you know if the walls have been insulated?" If they haven't, the surveyor can look at those too. For wall work, ask whether the house is listed or in a conservation area.
5. "Is it your own home, and is anyone else deciding with you?" If two people decide, both should hear what the survey finds.

4. If they ask whether it's free

"I'll be straight with you: we don't run grants, and I can't tell you on the phone whether you'd qualify for one. If you think you might, your council's the place to start. If you're paying yourself, there's no VAT on installed insulation at the moment."

HMRC's VAT Notice 708/6 gives installed insulation for walls, floors, ceilings, roofs or lofts in residential accommodation a zero rate until 31 March 2027, and 5% from 1 April 2027. Read the conditions before you rely on it, and don't use the date to rush anyone.

5. If they're worried it could go wrong

"That's a fair worry. Whether insulation suits your home is exactly what the survey checks, and if it doesn't, we'll tell you."

If you're TrustMark registered, tell them how to look you up before the visit.

6. Offer two survey slots

"Next, a surveyor comes out. They go into the loft, measure what's there and look at the boards, the hatch and the eaves, which need to stay clear for ventilation. Could you clear a way to the hatch? I've got Thursday at nine or Saturday at ten."

"I'll text to confirm, with who's coming. Reply to that text if you need to move it."

The eaves point is from the Planning Portal's loft insulation guidance, which warns against blocking the ventilation at the edges.

7. If they're not ready

"That's fine. Shall I try you after Christmas, or nearer next winter?"

Call back when they said, once. If it's still no, leave it there. Notice what the script leaves out: a warmer house, a lower bill, a cure for damp and a grant. The customer will judge the finished job against anything you promise.

Where POCKLA fits

Bought leads from POCKLA are one of the paid routes above. Our own Meta and Google campaigns find homeowners looking into loft, cavity wall, or external or internal wall insulation, and we sell them to installers as insulation leads. You choose the jobs and the postcodes, and each lead says which job the homeowner asked about. Every lead is sold once, to one buyer, and invalid numbers are returned with no time limit.

We don't sell funded-scheme leads. Our ads don't offer free insulation or funding, and enquiries that depend on a grant aren't sent. If a homeowner asks about funding, the lead records it as a screening answer, not an eligibility check. Whether a home suits any insulation is your surveyor's call.

The indicative price is £20–£80 per qualified web lead: loft and cavity wall leads at the low end, solid wall leads at the top. That's a range, not a quote, and your exact price is agreed on a call. Pricing lists no setup fee, no monthly fee and no minimum term. After the form, we follow up on WhatsApp from your brand's number, or with free SMS nurture and a personalised link, and send the lead to your CRM or POCKLA Desk. Calls made from Desk get free call analytics. If you advertise PAS 2030 certification or TrustMark registration, we check it before launch, and live transfers are available, priced on your criteria.

Bought leads sit beside the routes above, not in place of them. Run them through the same sum, surveys included, and keep buying only while they come in under what an insulation job earns you.