Despite the election of a Government dedicated to give a big boost to the programme of insulating buildings in the UK, the programme has virtually ground to a halt. Applicants report a string of excuses being given by contractors as to why installations cannot be done.
One of our supporters has written in saying:
‘I have been in an endless loop of grant possibilities and cancellations for
nearly two years. Latest is council told me on the phone last week that
the Great British Insulation Scheme is de facto cancelled, ie funding
nearly totally cut by new govt. Third time I have been in line for
something that got cancelled – they were to add to my loft insulation.
The whole ECO business is a mess of cherry picking by profit-hungry
private companies, as far as I can see if they don’t think a job is
profitable (enough) they tell lies to evade it. One friend was told she
could not have solar because there was a tree overhang when no such tree
exists! Another completed all the paperwork for solar, was told an
installation date, then was ghosted by the Merseyside company that
recruited her via online advertising… what a mess, and time consuming.’
As can be seen from the chart below, Government support for insulation measures has been in long term decline. As a result of the energy crisis, the Government did raise the amount of money being put towards the 2022-2026 Programme slightly compared to 2018-2024 (£1 billion compared to £624 million), but this is still small in comparison to what the previous Labour Government put in train.
The outgoing Conservative Government were planning to expand the programme (slightly again) and on top of this Labour led by Ed Miliband announced that they would put in an extra £6 billion over 4 years. However, it does not seem likely that there will be extra money to spend until April 2025. Let’s see what the Budget says about this.
But it seems that what we are seeing now is that many applicants are being fobbed off with excuses that they do not fit into criteria that seem arcane in nature.