Fuel Action Poverty: Government must reform its 'disastrous' retrofit insulation schemes

National organisation Fuel Poverty Action (FPA) said retrofitting in UK homes "has been done on a pitiful scale" and has "often been disastrous."

Homeowners in Burnley, Pendle, and across the country face huge costs, some surpassing £100,000, to remove defective insulation installed under government-backed Energy Company Obligation and Great British Insulation Schemes.

In an open letter to Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, FPA said: "Structural incentives prioritise quick and easy retrofits over quality and need, building in shoddy workmanship. Cowboy contractors - large and small - leave people’s homes with inadequate ventilation causing damp and mould, or with hanging wires, ill-fitting windows, and other products of unaccountable work instead of improved warmth, comfort, and health."

The energy department promised to ban 39 businesses from installing new solid wall insulation (SWI) in homes under a government scheme until they have fixed the properties where measures have failed.

FPA called the minister's commitment to quality checks and extending the measures to all retrofits "encouraging". It added that the Government's "promise that affected residents will not have to pay a penny [towards remediation] is an essential change from the bills that residents have previously faced to remove flammable cladding, update failing heat networks, or remedy cavity wall insulations."

The organisation called on Ofgem and TrustMark to do more to hold installers to account.

"Ofgem has introduced lots of paperwork but very limited checks that the promised quality, warmth, and annual bill savings are actually being delivered."

READ MORE: Watch on Shots!: We follow the victims of the cavity wall insulation scandal as they fight for justice following the collapse of legal firm SSB Law

FPA also calls for new laws that empower residents to hold to account those responsible for work on their homes, including contractors and landlords.

"The intention is to guarantee energy savings, ending the gravy train whereby profiteers, both large and small, can soak up huge sums of public money while leaving the UK’s housing stock the worst in Europe.

"Contractors bid to receive funding to install insulation during the government scheme. Payments should be based on reasonable costs, and money should be withheld if quality and performance standards are not met."

The charity is calling for:

The Government to listen to residents and offer the support and channels to make this real.

• A robust system of standards, regulations, and independent inspections.
• Measurement of effectiveness, with the results made public and guaranteed, and automatic compensation and remediation where savings and standards are unmet.
• Contractors should be paid a fair amount for the work done and not a "distorted" system based on "unreal" annual energy bill savings.
• Invest in skilled workers and secure feedback from them [during] on-site visits after the completion of projects.
• Compensation to residents proportionate to losses and suffering and straightforward to obtain.
• Effective sanctions, with checks to ensure firms do not dissolve and re-form.
• Urgently extend its promises to other retrofits beyond solid walls.

Burnley MP Oliver Ryan said he welcomes the letter, adding that it "raises some important questions about the sector and the greater regulation and consumer protection we all want to see. Indeed, I welcomed the Minister's actions in the House of Commons at the time. We must keep pushing to protect people in Burnley and across the UK from these cowboy operators."