LETTER: Where do you get help to insulate your home?

RECENTLY there have been lots of comments via government ministers and others within energy companies about ways to reduce energy costs this year, the advice is to look for the company offering the cheapest tariff and switch suppliers; and avail yourself of the grants and loans offered by government agencies such as Warm Front.

Now I was very surprised to read in the Express our MP Gordon Birtwistle is also on record as urging people to apply to one of these government bodies for loft insulation, grants and cavity wall insulation. In his Westminster Week column of September 16th, Mr Birtwistle mentions a business that carries out the work and offers advice on the free and discounted offers available to make your home warmer.

The reason I was surprised is that I applied for loft and wall insulation three years ago. I was successful with the loft but a surveyor who looked at my property told me they could not do stone-fronted properties as they were built using stone stretchers.

When I read Mr Birtwistle’s column I thought maybe they could do it now so I rang Burnley Council only to be told it no longer supplied these grants as funding from central government had been stopped. I contacted the plumbers in Northbridge Centre and was informed that, due to budget cuts, it could no longer carry out this type of insulation.

So there we have it. Mr Birtwistle is telling us we can get grants and/or loans, yet Burnley Council tells us this is not the case, and the firm which normally carries out the work tells us there are no grants available. I won’t hold my breath waiting for his explanation of this one.

MR K ROYLE

BURNLEY