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Energy secretary Ed Davey has said he is 鈥減roud鈥� of the government鈥檚 efforts to tackles energy efficiency, despite recent figures showing there has been a 97% drop in cavity wall insulation installations.

cavity wall insulation installation figures have collapsed under the Green Deal, falling a staggering 97% in April compared to the same month last year.

Challenged in parliament, Davey said he 鈥渦nderstood鈥� the problem with cavity wall installations, but said the real issue that would be addressed by the Green Deal was improving the energy efficiency of solid walls.

He said: 鈥淚 understand the issue in the cavity wall insulation market, but 鈥� there are very few cavity walls left to fill.

鈥淭he real issue in the building fabric of the nation is solid walls. There are 7 million solid walls that are yet to be treated for energy efficiency.

鈥淭he Green Deal and ECO will do something about it. That is where the biggest wins are available and we are proud of what we are doing.鈥�

But shadow climate change minister Luciana Berger said the government鈥檚 own figures showed there were around 5.8 million homes that still needed cavity wall insulation installed.

She said: 鈥淭here has been a 97% plummet in the number of cavity wall insulation installations, one in four insulation workers has lost their job since December and, according to industry reports, just three people are paying back a green deal loan on their electricity bill.

鈥淲hen is [the government] going to make the Green Deal a good deal, so that the ambition that we all share is achieved?鈥�

Vince Matthews, head of marketing at SIG Energy Management, said while the collapse in cavity insulation installations was 鈥渂ad news for the construction industry鈥�, what was 鈥渕ore concerning is that figures for the installation of solid wall insulation measures are not rising at the same time鈥�.

He said the government had failed to put in place adequate transition measures between the previos government schemes, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), and the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO).

He said: 鈥淚t stood to reason that that cavity wall insulations would be hard hit; most of the low hanging fruit had already been plucked, leaving only the harder-to-treat properties which require more complex insulation solutions.

鈥淩ight from the start it was these homes that ECO sought to address; those which, having been left largely untouched by CERT and CESP, remained most in need of improvement.

鈥淗owever, while we were depending on ECO to quickly pick up from where CERT and CESP left off, the smooth transition we all hoped for simply hasn鈥檛 materialised - largely due to widespread uncertainty about the new administration of the schemes.

鈥淎t this stage, the scheme doesn鈥檛 give homeowners the confidence to commit to a loan, whether that鈥檚 for cavity, solid wall insulation or other measures. With ECO, energy companies are still unsure of how to identify and improve hard-to-treat properties within the cost guidelines set by Government.

鈥淎s a result, it鈥檚 not just the energy efficiency of our housing stock that is on the line; the industry itself is now struggling to stay afloat in the face of this significant drop in workflow.

鈥淲hat we need now is for energy companies to finalise their approach to ECO, backed up by decisive action from Government to drive consumer interest in the Green Deal. In lieu of this materialising, installation volumes will continue to flat-line, and we will likely see a once burgeoning industry tragically fall by the wayside.鈥�