Calls to move England’s home insulation scheme into council workers’ hands | Energy efficiency

Councils should train their own workers to install insulation in England’s draughty homes and deliver house improvements on a street-by-street basis, starting in the most deprived areas, under proposals to cut energy bills.

Creating “home improvement companies” would give local councils greater control over low-carbon renovations of homes and would be a more efficient way of spending limited public funds on insulation, according to think tank Common Wealth, which sets out the proposals in a report this week.

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, unveiled in January, the government plans to spend £15 billion over the next three years to equip homes with better insulation, heat pumps and solar panels, which should reduce energy bills as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of the work will need to be done by local authorities, and the standard way of working is for councils to come together and bid for government funding. Many local authorities are frustrated by this method, which can be time-consuming and bureaucratic for small gains.

Common Wealth cited the example of the Warmer Homes consortium, led by Portsmouth City Council, which was awarded £22 million between 31 authorities over three years. This represents around 450 to 650 homes per year, or 15 to 20 homes per local authority per year.

Until now, most insulation projects have relied heavily on private contractors to carry out the work, but this has often proven problematic. Last year the National Audit Office found that 98% of homes fitted with external wall insulation were required under the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) and the Great British Insulation Scheme, run by the last Conservative government.

More than a quarter of buildings fitted with internal insulation under these schemes also required remedial measures, the NAO found. In January, the public accounts select committee called for a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the “catastrophic failure” of the schemes.

To avoid the same contractors causing similar failures, Common Wealth proposed that councils be allowed to do more work in-house, training many of the estimated 140,000 people needed to install the insulation and employing them permanently to maintain a steady stream of home improvements beyond the current warm houses plan.

Madeleine Pauker, the lead author of the Common Wealth report, said: “The current model is not capable of enabling this level of increase in the number of skilled workers. It must be led by the public sector.”

Having more workers under the control of councils rather than private contractors would improve standards, she said. “[Home improvement corporations] means accountability and oversight.

Insulation teams could systematically deliver improvements to homes, street by street, instead of the patchwork systems of the past, which tended to rely on households applying for grants or loans – with mixed results. Street-by-street programs could operate on a voluntary basis – families would have to explicitly reject improvements, rather than proactively request them – and could be coupled with repair and rehabilitation operations where homes are dilapidated.

Common Wealth claims that working in this way, with 30 home improvement companies covering England, would enable greater coverage of insulation improvements among disadvantaged communities and greater effectiveness of the scheme.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is in charge of the Warm Homes Plan, said: “Our £15 billion Warm Homes Plan could upgrade entire streets of social housing at a time, reducing bills and making entire neighborhoods warmer.

“Our new agency Warm Homes will also transform people’s experience of renovating their home, including providing initial advice to ensure consumers have confidence in accessing quality installations.

“We will work closely with local authorities to improve millions of homes in communities across the country. »

Responding to the report, Christopher Hammond, chief executive of UK100, a network of local authorities pursuing climate targets, said: “The Eco scandal has shown what happens when you create a gold rush for markets with short-term funding rather than building quality, long-term local supply chains. The Warm Homes Plan recognized the need for local authorities to play a bigger role in the biggest improvement in energy efficiency in a generation. The good news is that some councils are already doing a lot of home improvement, street by street.”

Hammond said the Holbeck district of Leeds had been “transformed” by the council undertaking necessary repairs as well as insulation, with 90 per cent uptake by residents.

He added that starting home improvement businesses, as the report recommends, is not the only way to achieve this. “We are already working under tight deadlines to expand what is already working,” he said.

“The report also calls for examining why past programs haven’t worked and why we need to keep benefits local. The easiest way to do this is to give local leaders the long-term, non-competitive resources they need.”