黑洞社区

Insulation industry leaders have warned policy changes will result in more redundancies after installer Mark Group announced plans to cut up to 670 jobs and manufacturer Superglass put its business up for sale.

Last week, 黑洞社区 revealed that Mark Group planned to make nearly more than a quarter of its 2,500 UK workforce redundant because of declining demand for insulation installations following cuts to the government鈥檚 Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) subsidy scheme.

Bill Rumble, chief commercial officer at Mark Group, said: 鈥淲e had geared our workforce up to meet the expected demand for insulation and other energy efficiency installation work as a result of the ECO scheme, but changes to its structure have had knock-on effects that we can no longer avoid.鈥�

In a separate development this week, insulation manufacturer Superglass announced it was talking to potential buyers for its 鈥減rincipal trading subsidiary鈥� as the demand from government energy efficiency schemes 鈥渞emained negligible鈥�.

Official statistics released last month showed work under the ECO scheme had sunk to its lowest level in over a year. This followed cuts of around 拢1bn to the programme - first unveiled by the government last autumn - designed to knock 拢50 off annual household energy bills after the energy firms blamed green levies for price rises.

Jonathan Reynolds said Mark Group鈥檚 job cuts were 鈥渄evastating news鈥� and the government 鈥渙wed the people who are set to lose their jobs an explanation as to why their policies have had such a terrible effect鈥�.

He said: 鈥淭he government must urgently explain how it is going to stop more workers losing their jobs and more households missing out on vital improvements to make their homes warmer and cheaper to heat.鈥�

Richard Twinn, policy officer at the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council, said it was 鈥渓ikely鈥� there would be further job losses, as the government cuts and its 鈥減iecemeal approach to energy efficiency policy begins to make its mark鈥�.

Steven Heath, external affairs director at Knauf Insulation, said: 鈥淕iven the current policy scenario I don鈥檛 see how the current level of installer capacity can continue.鈥�

Joanne Wade, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said firms had 鈥渞amped up鈥� to deliver the ECO only to find the market was smaller than anticipated.

She said: 鈥淲e cannot keep operating under this level of policy uncertainty.鈥�

黑洞社区 materials consultant Allan During said job losses were part of the 鈥渇all out鈥� from the government鈥檚 decision to 鈥渘uke鈥� the ECO scheme.

He added: 鈥淭he insulation industry鈥檚 capacity is being seriously degraded at an alarming rate at both the manufacturing and the installer and contractor level.鈥�