Scrapping Green Homes Grant had ‘devastating consequences’, MPs say

MPs have slammed the Green Homes Grant scheme for its botched implementation, poor administration and devastating consequences on many builders and installers.

The criticism comes just six weeks after it was confirmed thegovernment was set to claw back most of the £1.5bn fund for retrofitting homesbecause of delays getting the money to householders meant it was unlikely to be spent by this month’s deadline.

9月底启动的绿色家园资助计划，包括15亿英镑给住户，并将持续到本月底，但截至1月22日，只花费了7100万英镑，即5%的资金。政府宣布，未使用的资金将不会展期。

The environmental audit committee’s 80-page report, Energy Efficiency of Existing Homes, also highlighted the damage the scheme had done to the construction sector.

It said: “The impact of its botched implementation has had devastating consequences on many of the builders and installers that can do the work, who have been left in limbo as a result of the orders cancelled and time taken to approve applications.”

It added the scheme was “rushed in conception and poorly implemented … [the] scheme administration appears nothing short of disastrous”.

According to data released last week by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, there were more than 123,000 applications for the grant by the end of February but only 28,000 vouchers had been issued and only 5,800 measures had been installed.

The report said there was next to no chance the UK’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 would be met without a comprehensive programme to retrofit at least 19 million homes and switch from gas boilers to low CO₂heating.

The MPs recommended that the Green Homes Grant scheme be “urgently overhauled and extended to provide a genuine long-term stimulus to the domestic energy efficiency sector”.

他们表示，该计划不应该被废除或悄悄关闭，政府需要解决该计划的设计和管理问题，所有在2021年3月底前未使用的已分配资金都将滚动到下一个财政年度。

The report also said that the government needed to develop a national retrofit strategy.

It added: “We recommend that as part of the forthcoming heat and buildings strategy a national retrofit strategy is developed with colleges and other education providers to provide the training and re-training needed to prepare our homes for a low-carbon future.

“The strategy must address the much-needed increase in certified heat pump installers to meet expected demand including through recruitment incentives, with support for apprenticeships and reskilling.”

RIBA president Alan Jones said the report’s recommendations to “address our shamefully inefficient housing stock” were essential to the government’s net zero ambitions.

He said: “I particularly endorse recommendations to implement a national retrofit strategy and pilot stamp duty rebates for homeowners that improve the efficiency of their homes within the first year – measures we’ve been calling for through our Greener Homes campaign.”

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Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, which has long campaigned for a national retrofit strategy, said he hoped the government implemented the report’s recommendations in full.

He said: “A long-term national retrofit strategy, underpinned by a skills plan and fiscal incentives that build supply and demand for home retrofits, must be a government priority ahead of COP26,” he said.

“If we are to lead the world in tackling climate change, then the government must act now to mobilise a market that has historically failed and will continue to do so if we rely on flash-in-the-pan schemes.”

Berry said that cutting VAT on home improvement projects, something the committee recommended, in combination with financial solutions like green mortgages, would help make green home upgrades achievable for more households.