{"id":29578,"date":"2021-04-02T17:32:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T16:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29578"},"modified":"2021-04-02T17:32:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T16:32:49","slug":"green-plan-to-upgrade-homes-was-botched-say-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29578","title":{"rendered":"Green plan to upgrade homes was ‘botched’, say MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>The environmental audit select committee says the Green Homes Grant (GHG), which is to help people in the UK upgrade their homes and offers people up to \u00a310,000 for insulation, has been \u2018botched\u2019 and is so inept that it is actually damaging the building sector.<\/h3>\n
image: for illustration purposes only<\/em><\/h6>\n

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\u202619 million UK homes are poorly insulated\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u2026 impact of botched implementation of the GHG has had devastating consequences\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

The BBC writes:<\/p>\n

The environmental audit select committee says the Green Homes Grant (GHG), which offers people up to \u00a310,000 for insulation, is so inept that it is actually damaging the building sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It adds that 19 million UK homes are poorly insulated and accuses ministers of \u201cfailing to grasp” the challenge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The government says it is “committed to going further and faster”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But the MPs warn that unless urgent action is taken to improve energy efficiency of homes this decade, the UK will fail to meet its climate targets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That is because the UK\u2019s housing stock accounts for 20% of its carbon emissions through heating, hot water and cooking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The MPs said the scheme had “only achieved 10% of its target to improve 600,000 homes in six months”….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It has been rumoured that the Treasury wants to scrap the GHG scheme, but the committee says the system needs to be reformed, not abolished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And crucially, the MPs insist, the grants need long-term funding so there is time to build a supply chain of materials, and a well-trained workforce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The government is preparing a Heat and Buildings Strategy, and has previously denied wanting to scrap the scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said over 33,000 GHG vouchers worth more than \u00a3142m have already been issued, helping to improve the energy efficiency of homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Botched implementation’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The GHG scheme went awry because too many householders were chasing too few installers. There were also delays in the grant payments which have left many installers out of pocket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The report says: \u201cThe impact of botched implementation of the GHG 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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The committee also warns that the government may have underestimated the costs to decarbonise UK homes by 2050, by between \u00a335bn and \u00a365bn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It says these figures do not include properties with solid walls, or those in conservation areas, which could make energy efficiency installations more challenging \u2013 and increase the bill.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe GHG scheme should not be scrapped or quietly wound down,” said the select committee’s chairman Philip Dunne.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe government must address the design and administration issues….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Brian Berry, from the Federation of Master Builders, told the committee: \u201cThe market needs certainty because small companies are not going to invest unless they know there is a long-term market.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf we want to tackle energy efficiency in our homes, we need to give encouragement to these small companies that this is not just a flash in the pan, it is not going to be a repeat of the previous Green Deal [for housing loans, which was scrapped].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is a 20-year programme to transform our existing homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Insulation campaigner Dr Joanne Wade said: \u201cThe committee is right to call for a \u2018genuine long-term stimulus to the domestic energy efficiency sector\u2019 \u2013 it is something that we have repeatedly urged government to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf we don\u2019t do this, we won\u2019t achieve net zero.\u201d….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The BEIS spokesman said: “The UK has a strong track record in improving the energy performance of its homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“However, we ?are committed to going further and faster, and are investing \u00a39bn in improving the energy efficiency of our buildings, while creating hundreds of thousands of skilled green jobs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“This includes funding for the first hydrogen powered houses and allocating more than \u00a3500m this year alone to improve the energy efficiency of 50,000 households in social and local authority housing across the UK, as we work to eliminate our contribution to climate change by 2050.”<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The environmental audit select committee says the Green Homes Grant (GHG), which is to help people in the UK upgrade their homes and offers people up to \u00a310,000 for insulation, has been \u2018botched\u2019 and is so inept that it is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29579,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29578\/revisions\/29579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}