The Committee on Climate Change recently issued its latest annual progress report to Parliament, highlighting the need to increase the level of external wall insulation (EWI) installations in order to meet the government’s targets of reducing carbon emissions.
Wetherby Building Systems is arguing that to increase the level of EWI installations, funding needs to be made more accessible, as Anne-Marie Armstrong from Wetherby explains:
“The main barrier to solid wall insulation being installed is funding and since the majority within the industry still do not understand how it works, there is a huge education process required.
“Since new government initiatives – Green Deal and ECO – launched in January, very few EWI projects have been awarded since the industry was just not ready. The first issue has been the level of funding available, as many social housing providers are anticipating that ECO will follow the same pattern as CERT and CESP and are not committing to projects that are 50% - 60% funded, if there is a chance they will become fully funded as we get further into the 2 ½ year programme.
“The second hurdle is actually understanding the fundamentals of how the funding process works, since the few projects that have been awarded under the schemes have been fraught with issues.
“Should the government wish to increase take up of solid wall insulation, it needs to firstly ensure that all necessary processes are firmly in place, but more importantly it needs to educate system manufacturers, contractors and social landlords on exactly how these processes should work.”
