Retrofit failures: How do we move forward on warm homes?
In December the Committee convened an evidence session with new minister for energy consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh, updating its pre-election work on the challenges for the UK in insulating and heating homes as part of the drive for lower energy bills, good jobs and a safer country all key components of the government’s clean power 2030 plan.
Meeting details
The Government committed in its election manifesto to upgrade five million homes over five years with the £6.6bn Warm Homes Plan. This is expected to include grants and low-interest loans to support families to invest in insulation, encourage low-carbon heating and enable the ‘retrofitting’ of home energy improvements.
UK housing stock accounts for around 17% of national emissions and is among the least energy efficient in Europe. The UK’s Climate Change Committee has said residential retrofits needed to increase to a rate of 500,000 per year by 2025, and one million per year by 2030, to meet the UK’s clean energy target.
But last month minister Fahnbulleh announced new measures being taken to protect households after checks found widespread cases of poor-quality solid wall insulation had been installed under previous Government schemes. 39 businesses were immediately suspended from installing new solid wall insulation with the installers responsible for substandard work to be forced to fix it, and households not asked to pay. This represents a major change to the regulatory landscape, especially for business, and raises questions about the inadequate nature of the oversight of the schemes.
Poorly installed insulation can cause dampness, mould growth, and structural damage to properties, with impacts on consumer finances and health – as well as the clear setback in achieving what were already stretching targets.
Consumers rightly expect a Government-funded programme to be secure and high standard - so what went so wrong in these retrofit schemes?
On Wednesday 12 February the Committee will hear from a first panel of people with direct experience of insulation failures in their homes and from some of those involved in getting the problems fixed: we will ask who is to blame for the issues surrounding retrofit.
The second panel will assess how best to reshape industry regulation and ensure Government targets are now safely met.