A broad-based industry coalition has rejected government suggestions that take-up of the Green Homes Grant (GHG) has been held back by lack of appetite among consumers wary about having work done in their properties during the pandemic.
A total of 19 organisations and companies have signed a joint letter to Lord Callanan, junior energy minister, warning about the risks of scrapping the troubled energy efficiency and low-carbon heating voucher scheme in next week’s Budget.
According to figures supplied to Parliament by energy secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan this week, 22,165 GHG vouchers have been approved and issued to customers with a total value of £94.1 million as of 8 February.
However, the first detailed statistics about the operation of the scheme, published last week by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said just 2,777 energy efficiency and low-carbon heating measures had actually been installed by the end of January.
The figures show that the scheme’s administrators were seeking extra information from nearly half (46 per cent) of the nearly 100,000 who had applied for a voucher.
Following the publication of the statistics, a government spokesperson told The Times newspaper that the scheme is due to be scrapped and take-up had been hampered by lack of demand from consumers worried about letting tradespeople into their homes.
However, the letter says the scheme has proved “incredibly popular with the public” with levels of interest “unprecedented and in many cases astounding despite the challenges of the pandemic”.
“Pent up demand to improve homes, reduce energy costs and contribute to tackling climate change is finally being unlocked with hundreds of thousands of enquiries already received across the sector and work now being installed at increasing pace.’”
It adds that new enquiries for insulation and low carbon heating measures have remained “extremely strong despite the current lockdown”.
Teething problems within the scheme have been ironed out meaning that vouchers are coming through “more regularly” and the process of paying installers “continues to improve”.
It recently emerged that hundreds of millions of underspending on the scheme, which was allocated £1.5 billion last summer, will not be rolled forward into the next financial year.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s spending review, published last November, identified £320 million for GHG, which looks set to leave a large chunk of the sums earmarked for the scheme unspent.
The letter’s authors write: “Any proposal for a further reduction in funding on this scheme would undoubtedly lead to completely the opposite effect with insolvencies, job losses and a huge lost opportunity for sustained job creation alongside the confidence and ability of the industry to invest in current and future schemes.”
Bean Beanland, of the Heat Pump Federation (HPF) said: “It is clear that, under the appropriate commercial conditions, uptake in participation by installers will climb, awareness and demand from the public is there to be serviced and we see very little evidence of homeowners not wanting heat pump engineers in their homes as a result of the pandemic.
“As with all government interventions, give the industry an extended period of stable policy and the heat pump sector will deliver growth, training and secure new employment.”
The HPF and Ground Source Heat Pump Association have called on ministers to either roll over unspent funds into 2021-22, or increase the budget for the second year of the scheme.
They have also urged the BEIS and the Treasury to work directly with the heat pump industry to review and reform the GHG’s terms and conditions in order spur increased rates of registration with Trustmark, the accreditation scheme for installers.