A report from the Public Accounts Committee of the heavily criticised Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme has written that the initiative “underperformed badly”, delivering only a small fraction of the expected job and accounting for just £314 million out of the original £1.5 billion budget.
The Committee concluded that despite the good intentions of the scheme (creating new jobs during the pandemic while tackling emissions), the 12-week time frame to implement the scheme was unrealistic and imposed constraints on its design and implementation.
The report also explained the scheme should have been halted and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy should have consulted the industry and consumers to avoid creating an overly complex scheme design with poor customer experiences and lower uptake than envisaged.
By August 2021, 52% of homeowners’ voucher applications were rejected or withdrawn, and 46% of installer applications failed. The Scheme also struggled due to the failure of its scheme administration contractor, ICF Consulting Services, to successfully implement the required digital voucher application system.
Thoughts from the FMB…
Commenting on the report, Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), said: “It is not surprising to read the Public Accounts Committee’s damning assessment of last year’s Green Homes Grant Scheme.
“By the experience of our own members, the FMB echoes the Committee’s criticisms and know that the scheme was too short-term in outlook. Critically, it did not allow sufficient time for builders to upskill and gain the necessary accreditations. For those that did make the leap, they ended up spending large sums of money only to have the scheme pulled from under their feet.”
He continued: “This stop-go green initiative undermined certainty for both the public and builders in trying to stimulate demand for energy efficient home improvements. The government needs a National Retrofit Strategy which sets out a clear, long-term plan to upgrade our existing homes and would go some way to restore faith in green initiatives with the public and industry.”
>>Read more about the Green Homes Grant here.
