Public Accounts Committee chair says ‘sheer level’ of fiasco means investigation has to begin
The Public Accounts Committee has said the Serious Fraud Office should consider looking into an insulation initiative which left more than 30,000 homes with defects.
Almost all homes fitted with external insulation under two government retrofit schemes need remediation work to correct “major issues” including damp and mould, a report from the National Audit Office found last autumn.
It said 98% of homes given external wall insulation under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 4 and Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) will require repair work, affecting thousands of homes.
The NAO’s report also uncovered evidence of widespread suspected fraud, with energy regulator Ofgem estimating businesses had falsified claims for installations in up to 16,500 homes.
In a report on the debacle, the chair of the government’s spending watchdog Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: “I have served on the Public Accounts Committee for 12 years. In all that time, a 98% failure rate in a public sector initiative amounts to the most catastrophic fiasco that I have seen on this Committee.
“Indeed, our report finds the project was doomed to failure from the start. Government behaved inexplicably in redesigning a similar scheme which was working reasonably well into a highly-complex number of organisations with siloed responsibilities, which did not respond to failures anything like quickly enough to prevent damage being done to people’s homes.
“Potentially thousands of people are now living with health and safety risks in their homes, and despite government’s protestations we have nowhere near enough assurance that they are not financially exposed to unaffordable bills to repair the defective works.
“All involved in the system must now move at far greater pace to make good. The public’s confidence will have rightly been shaken in retrofit schemes given what has happened, and government now has a self-inflicted job of work on its hands to restore faith in the action required to bring down bills and reduce emissions.
“Finally – this Committee’s remit is financial scrutiny. We are not a law enforcement body. The sheer levels of non-compliance found here make it clear to us that these matters should be referred to the Serious Fraud Office, and our report recommends as such.”
The PAC said it found “a system with serious failings at every level” and warned: “The recent announcement of the Warm Homes Plan is likely to lead to scaling up of other energy efficiency installations such as solar panels. It is vital that this is accompanied by a proper oversight of quality, that was so lacking here.”
Last year’s NAO report said remediation works would cost between £250 and £18,000 per home “if it is done before damage occurs”, although repair work in one home fitted with internal insulation which resulted in damp, mould and dry rot cost £250,000.
TrustMark, the quality assurance scheme appointed by the government to oversee the two schemes, said 27 of the 194 registered businesses with outstanding work were no longer registered and warned there was a risk of some businesses being closed and reopened to avoid their liabilities.
In the report’s aftermath, the Federation of Master Builders renewed calls to introduce a mandatory licensing scheme for all domestic retrofit workers.
No comments yet