The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has described the Government’s decision to abandon the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme as an “absolute travesty”.
Julie Hirigoyen, Chief Executive at UKGBC, said the decision announced over the weekend had left households wanting to take action on energy efficiency and businesses trying to plan ahead without any support.
She claimed it had created “yet another roadblock” for decarbonising the country’s 29 million homes.
“We have been left speechless by this news, which comes just days after the Environmental Audit Committee sent a clear message to government that if we are to meet our legally binding target to be net zero carbon by 2050, urgent action is needed to improve energy efficiency of homes this decade,” she continued.
“From start to finish the scheme has been beset by problems of Government’s own making. But these should have been fixed, not used to justify its scrapping.
“In the year of the UK hosting COP26, this is not the sort of example we wanted to be setting for the world – a lesson in precisely how not to do policy making in this vital sector. With a stream of crucial policies coming down the pipeline for construction and property in the next few months and years, lessons must be learnt as soon as possible and these mistakes not repeated.
“Government is now emphasising the role of local authorities in delivering retrofit and there is absolutely no doubt that they have a key role to play. But they need the certainty of a national retrofit strategy within which to operate locally, and they need to be given financial support and the freedom to innovate.
“Retrofit has a clear role to play in both levelling-up and driving a green-recovery at the local level, but this requires a genuine partnership approach.”
RIBA President, Alan Jones,
described the decision as disappointing and claimed the scheme was mismanaged, calling
for an end to the “stop-start cycle of second-rate retrofitting policy”.
We need a comprehensive National Retrofit Strategy with adequate funding and
clear roadmap for action,” he said. “I hope that there will be lessons learned
from this debacle.
“The additional funding pledged and the focus on low-income homes must be
welcomed, but I’m concerned the Government fails to grasp the scale of the
problem – at least 19 million UK homes requiring retrofitting.
“But we’re not only calling for more money; policymakers must also provide
incentives for those ‘able to pay’ to update their own homes. By reforming
property taxes such as stamp duty and council tax, the Government can help
accelerate this urgent programme.”
“The RIBA’s ‘Greener Homes’ campaign urges the Government to make homes
more energy efficient by bringing forward a National Retrofit Strategy and
introduce a sliding scale of stamp duty, capped at £25,000, with the most
energy efficient homes accruing significantly less tax than the least energy efficient.”
The chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), Richard Beresford, said: “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.
“Even before the scheme began, the NFB repeatedly warned civil servants about the issues which would plague successful implementation and were advised that concerns should be brought up after the scheme began. Yet even in the final weeks, NFB’s solutions to the failings of the Green Homes Grant were ignored.
“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).
“The NRS still requires a retrofit industry to be established because a major flaw of the Green Homes Grant was that too few companies were accredited to do the insulation and air tightening works which made a move to electric energy worthwhile.
“The Government must therefore remove the barriers to entry it set through the Green Homes Grant, and allow companies doing internationally accredited retrofit works, such as EnerPHit, to win work while they meet the new UK PAS2035 standard.”
Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the NFB and who sits on the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), Repair, Maintenance and Improvement taskforce, said if Government had 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,” he continued.
“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.
“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.
“With these four very simple policy changes, our COP 26 blushes will be spared, industry trust will start to be rebuilt and the NRS, which is our best opportunity for change, will start from the best position possible.”
