Green Homes Grant scheme flop: £1bn will go unused

The Government will withdraw £1billion of funding to the Green Homes Grant scheme, which launched last year.

The £2billion grant was billed as a way of helping homeowners improve the energy efficiency of their home and to help stimulate a green jobs revolution.

Some £500millon of this was intended for local authorities, with the remaining £1.5billion for homeowners. 

However, the Government have now said it did not intend to roll over most of the funds into the next financial year.

The Green Homes Grant funding is to be cut by £1.5bn as remaining funds will not roll over

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the minister of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, said as of 22 January, 17,235 vouchers have been issued, corresponding to a total voucher value of £71.3million.

She added £320million of funding for the scheme has been made available for 2021 to 2022. 

As the Government do not intend to roll over the remainder to the new financial year, this leaves roughly £1billion unspent.

In a written answer to Labour questioning, Ms Trevelyan added the original funding for the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme was announced as a short-term stimulus, for use in the 2020 to 2021 financial year only. 

Labour has condemned the move with Ed Miliband MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, saying: ‘This makes a mockery of the Government’s commitments on climate change and a green recovery.

‘It is outrageous that the Government is withdrawing funding promised to help insulate people’s homes. 

‘They are denying homeowners the energy improvements they need, denying installers the work they need and denying the country the green transition we need.

The original funding for the Green Homes Grant was only for the 2020 to 2021 financial year

He added: ‘To top it all off, it is their own mismanagement of this programme that means only a fraction of this funding looks set to be spent.

‘Ministers must make good on their funding promise and reverse this farcical decision by rolling all the underspend over into 2021.’

Under the Green Homes Grant, the Government made available 600,000 vouchers for energy efficiency improvements to homes with the deadline for all finished works set at 31 March 2022.

The vouchers will fund at least two thirds of the cost of hiring tradespeople to upgrade the energy performance of their homes.

The Government added the scheme would help towards its target of 100,000 jobs in green construction and could help families save up to £600 a year on their energy bills.

It has already faced controversy after it was revealed it was only due to be available for six months in which time households would have to sign up, find a trader and have all works completed. 

Other issues include smaller traders being alienated from the scheme due to the current registration process which was said to be both lengthy and costly. 

Many households also reported struggling to find any available tradespeople available due to the number of people looking to have works completed in the lockdown period. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk