Green cash fiasco wastes £1.5bn: Fortune is set to be frittered away amid shambolic rollout of eco-home improvements scheme
- £2billion in Green Homes Grant was pledged to make homes energy efficient
- In September scheme promised 600,000 vouchers to homes owners in England
- More than 23,000 grant vouchers been issued and around £100million paid out
- Leftover cash from the pot will not be rolled over to the next financial year
Green grant cash worth more than £1.5billion is set to be wasted after a shambolic rollout of the Government’s eco-home improvements scheme.
Last year ministers pledged £2billion in Green Homes Grant money, offering homeowners up to £5,000 (or £10,000 for those on low incomes) to make their properties more energy efficient.
The scheme, which was launched in September, promised 600,000 vouchers to homeowners in England.
Last year ministers pledged £2billion in Green Homes Grant money, offering homeowners up to £5,000 (or £10,000 for those on low incomes) to make their properties more energy efficient. Picture: Stock
This would cover up to two-thirds of the cost of energy-saving work such as insulation and eco-friendly heating.
But so far more than 23,000 grant vouchers have been issued and around £100million has been paid out.
And ministers have said that any leftover cash from the £2billion pot will not be rolled over to the next financial year – for which just £320million has been put aside.
The Environmental Audit Committee has criticised the slow pace of the rollout, saying it would take more than ten years to meet its target at the current rate.
Committee chairman Philip Dunne said: ‘Unless overhauled and further extended, this scheme will fail to deliver.’
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said it was working to process voucher applications ‘as quickly as possible’.
So far more than 23,000 grant vouchers have been issued and around £100million has been paid out. Picture: Stock
A previous green deal, trumpeted by the then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in 2013, was scrapped after two years because of a low take-up.
The scheme has been plagued with problems since the start with homeowners left confused by the application process and unable to find approved local tradesman to do the work.
There were also concerns that the installations could not be completed by the time the scheme ended on March 31 2021.
The Government agreed to extend the deadline to the following year but installers and homeowners are still reporting huge delays in receiving their vouchers needed before the work can start.
Tradesmen have blamed the slow processing of grant applications. The latest figures show 75,000 applications have been made and 12,000 are still being processed.