MPs call for retrofit advice service and accreditation scheme for contractors

Badly-designed retrofit schemes and the skills crisis have set back efforts to decarbonise home heating, according to a parliamentary committee.

In a report published yesterday by the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, MPs called for a new national Warm Homes Advice Service to direct consumers to advice, certified installers and financial support.

The committee claimed such a scheme could give a return of £15 for every £1 spent on it.

It also criticised successive governments for introducing a series of “stop-start” support schemes with short term funding, estimating that there had been at least 10 since 2013.

It said this failed to provide consumers, installers, investors or the wider supply chain with confidence needed to restructure the market.

The committee also made note of the national skills crisis and inadequate assurance, having heard from people who had suffered from poor quality retrofit in their homes.

It said early estimates were that around 250,000 homes could be un-mortgageable due to spray foam insulation.

On the back of this evidence, the Committee called for a national workforce accreditation scheme to ensure people who try to upgrade their homes know who they can trust.

>> Read more: Government to fund 18,000 retrofit training places 

Committee chair Bill Esterson said: “The UK’s disastrous lost decade for clean, secure energy is nowhere more evident than in the project to decarbonise and reduce costs for home heating: we are shockingly 98% below the levels of energy efficiency measures being installed in homes relative to the trajectory we were on in 2010.”

Responding to the report, Amanda Williams, head of environmental sustainability at the Chartered Institute of Building, backed the committee’s criticism of stop-start support schemes.

“Our sector has well-documented skills and worker shortages so instead of short-term, ever-changing schemes, long-term policies that provide a steady pipeline of demand for retrofitting must be the way forward,” she said. 

“This would provide the industry with the assurance to invest in training and upskilling the workforce, which in turn gives households confidence that retrofit works will be delivered by suitably qualified people.”