The Green Homes Grant in England has been scrapped, due to a supposed lack of participation and sign up. Heralded as an opportunity to revolutionise Britain’s homes in the fight against climate change, just 10% of the 600,000 eligible homes signed up for the scheme.
The support for the scheme, which was introduced in 2020 to offer £10,000 to homeowners looking to upgrade their homes and could have been worth up to a reported £2billion, is now set to be reallocated to councils and local authorities. And with 19 million homes in the UK still said to be in need of a pressing environmental facelift, the administration of the campaign has drawn significant criticism, ranging from the outsourcing of logistics to American-based companies such as Virginian-based consultancy ICF to the inability to source local tradespeople for installations.
The Federation of Master Builders said the Government’s decision to cancel the scheme will significantly damage the country’s progress towards net zero targets. Brian Berry, FMB Chief Executive, commented: “The misguided scrapping of the Green Homes Grant scheme sends entirely the wrong message to consumers and builders, and will harm the UK’s desire to be seen as a global leader in tackling climate change.
“Flaws with the scheme should have been addressed, in consultation with industry, with a commitment to training. Instead we have another example of a stop-go green initiative that undermines, rather than creates, certainly for both the public and installers. The Government needs to be more ambitious in its thinking and set out a long-term plan to upgrade our existing homes to make them greener and more energy efficient.
“A National Retrofit Strategy would address this need and allow the Government to be taken seriously as well as regain the trust of industry.”
Brian concluded: “Small, local builders who have spent thousands of pounds becoming eligible for work under the scheme rightly feel let down and angry. Without these workers on the Government’s side, we will fail to retrofit our 28 million existing homes, missing the opportunities for green growth, new jobs, and to level up.”
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders, picked up the theme: “In order to access this scheme, thousands of small businesses jumped through costly hoops to win this work. Closing it with four days’ notice is completely disrespectful and some small businesses will close because of it.
“The Government cannot dwell on this failure and it is time to move on and ensure that next time, industry is at the heart of retrofitting policy. This is why NFB is backing the National Retrofit Strategy (NRS).”
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Housing and Planning Policy at the NFB and who sits on the Construction Leadership Council Repair, Maintenance and Improvement taskforce, added: “Had anybody listened to industry, this could have been a successful scheme. The Government needs to create a market environment for retrofitting works and understand that there isn’t yet the skilled workforce in every area to complete retrofitting works at the standard the Government set.
“Once it has a pathway to upskill industry, it must seek out professionals already doing these works and in the early days, allow them access to any accredited retrofitting works. It also needs to reform planning so these works can more easily go ahead.”
Rico continued: “It must also offer market, not just tax payer funded incentives. We recommend a stamp duty rebate on homes which new homeowners can get to EPC C within two years, as well as an exemption on the most energy efficient new homes. It should also offer a VAT cut on our 9 million traditional and heritage buildings as this will build a highly skilled workforce and stimulate the most innovative retrofitting solutions.”
