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Less than 5% of Green Homes Grant budget paid out to homeowners
Less than 5% of the budget for an energy efficiency scheme that was intended to help the UK economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis has been issued to homeowners despite it being five months since it was launched.
In an answer to a written parliamentary question, the government has revealed that as of 26 January this year, 17,618 Green Homes Grant vouchers had been paid out to homeowners, worth a total of £73.1m.
This is just 4.9% of the £1.5bn budget allocated by the chancellor to provide homeowners with vouchers to carry out energy efficiency upgrades in their homes.
The Green Homes Grant was announced by Rishi Sunak in July last year as part of his plan for the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the £1.5bn for homeowners, £500m in funding was allocated to local authorities to carry out upgrades in low-income households, bringing the total Green Homes Grant budget to £2bn.
Both funding streams were originally due to be spent by the end of March this year, but the government announced an extension on these deadlines last November.
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The government now has until March 2022 to allocate the remaining £1.43bn worth of vouchers to homeowners.
Philip Dunne, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said vouchers were being issued at “snail’s pace”, adding that it would “take over 10 years to fulfil the government’s expectation” if work continues at the same rate.
He called for a “radical overhaul” of the scheme, including the removal of “unnecessary bureaucracy”.
“Many of the builders and installers that can do the work are in limbo as a result of the time taken to approve applications, and perversely we have heard evidence some are having to lay off skilled workers as orders have been stalled pending confirmation of vouchers,” he said.
The government originally required all firms carrying out work under the Green Homes Grant scheme to be registered with quality assurance firm TrustMark.
However, these rules were changed in January this year to allow primary contractors to sub-contract work to firms not registered with TrustMark.
A spokesperson from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “Over 21,000 Green Homes Grant vouchers have already been issued, helping us improve the energy efficiency of homes, and we continue to work with the scheme’s administrator to ensure voucher applications are processed as quickly as possible.
“To ensure the highest standards of service, ministers have asked the scheme administrator to pay money owed to installers and sort the processing of applications as a matter of urgency.”
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