黑洞社区

Any replacement for the government鈥檚 failed Green Homes Grant scheme must be long term for it to work, an industry expert has told ministers.

Speaking to 黑洞社区 UK Green 黑洞社区 Council (UKGBC) chief executive Julie Hirigoyen has said the government 鈥渟hot itself in the foot鈥� by only making the original scheme available to the end of 2022.

The comments came the day after business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that he was in talks with the chancellor on bringing back an 鈥渆quivalent鈥� plan.

Launched in September 2020, the programme gave users vouchers covering up to two thirds of the cost of energy saving improvements to their homes including insulation.

But the programme has been widely criticised for its chaotic implementation, poor administration and financial impact on many builders and installers.

Kwarteng admitted the initial two-year programme was 鈥減roblematic鈥�, with just 拢71m out of 拢1.5bn allocated for homeowners spent by January this year before it was scrapped in March.

Hirigoyen said one of the reasons the scheme had been a failure was because its short window had not incentivised installers to invest in the skills and accreditation schemes needed to carry out the work.

She said: 鈥淚ndustry needs clarity, it needs certainty and consistency on a long term basis. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the damage caused by stop start policies or very short term knee jerk reactions to what are significant systemic risks.鈥�

She added that a 鈥渕ultitude of different levers鈥� needed to be pulled at the same time to encourage people to decarbonise their homes, including tax incentives.

Last week, Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry said that the Green Homes Grant had been a disappointment to small firms because of its short duration and warned that builders would continue to be cautious about committing to retrofit work if the government 鈥渃ontinues to pull the rug out from underneath this鈥�.

Any detail on a replacement to the scheme is likely to be included in the government鈥檚 heat and building strategy, which will set out how the UK鈥檚 28 million homes and other buildings will be decarbonised.

But the plan, first promised in early 2021, has been delayed for more than six months, with media reports suggesting that a row had erupted within government over how parts of it will be funded.

Hirigoyen said while the government was grappling with other demands on the public purse including funding for social care, it could not 鈥渢rade these off against one another鈥�.

鈥淲hen we鈥檙e looking at cost, we need to look at the cost of inaction, and huge insurance claims and costs further down the line that we鈥檙e just storing up for ourselves,鈥� she said.

She added that the government could not afford to delay the strategy, pointing to a major new report by the UN鈥檚 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which she said 鈥渆mphatically reinforces鈥� the urgency of reducing emissions.

The report, which Boris Johnson called 鈥渟obering reading鈥�, warned that only immediate and drastic carbon reductions could avoid irreversible climate change.