Companies respond to the Government’s cut to the Green Homes Grant
Posted by: electime 17th February 2021
Responding to the announcement, George Webb, CEO, Liquid Gas UK commented: The Government has fallen at the first hurdle of trying to tackle net-zero in the millions of homes around the UK. At its heart, the scheme misunderstood homeowners and people’s lives. The boxing in of homeowners into a small set of options such as heat pumps did not tally with the realities of the way of life for millions and what they can afford. Forcing homeowners to select one primary and expensive improvement has prevented homeowners from carrying out realistic measures such as double glazing or draught-proofing. A one size fits all approach clearly doesn’t work, so UK Government must accept this when designing future schemes. There must be support for a mix of technologies, including options such as LPG and less intrusive energy efficiency measures, so that rural households and small businesses can all play their part in reducing their carbon footprint.
Adrienne Minster, CEO of Rated People said:
“The Green Homes Grant has been hugely successful in motivating homeowners to make green renovations to their homes, with demand for improvements covered under the scheme soaring year on year. However, there have clearly been issues with grants being approved and payments being made for the work, and it is disappointing to learn that a large part of funding is now being withdrawn. The Green Homes Grant can play an important role in the government’s pledge for a post-coronavirus green recovery and we would urge them to re-think this decision and look into ways to solve the operational challenges, so that the scheme can end up becoming a real success.
Like all SME’s, trades businesses run tight budgets and are very sensitive to cashflow, so any disruption to payments puts their businesses at risk at a time when they would particularly benefit from government support. We would love to see the government look into the issues and prioritise arranging delayed payments, to ease any unintended financial pressure on tradespeople.”
Data from Rated People has found that the Green Homes Grant is proving popular with homeowners. Demand for wall and loft insulation has more than doubled, soaring by 161 per cent year on year, and projects covered under the scheme as ‘secondary measures’ are also in high demand, with replacing windows and doors up by 13 per cent and installing secondary glazing up 8 per cent.
Environment Committee right to call for VAT cut to boost green home upgrades, said FMB:
Cutting VAT on the installation of domestic energy efficiency improvements and low carbon heating technology would help unlock additional finance for households to invest in their properties, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in response to the Environmental Audit Committee report Growing Back Better, published today.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive, of the FMB, said: “The FMB has been calling for a VAT cut on home improvement works for many years, and it is welcome to see this policy recommended in the Environmental Audit Committee’s report today in relation to green home upgrades. We need to make it easier for households to make their homes greener if we are going to tackle climate change. I also support the Committee’s recommendation for the Green Homes Grant scheme to be extended and reformed. As I told the Committee, longer-term certainty will make it more likely the more small building firms take part in the scheme. These policies should be brought together under one umbrella National Retrofit Strategy for improving the nation’s homes.”
Berry concluded: “An ambitious programme to improve the comfort and environmental impact of our housing stock represents a golden opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and level-up across the country post-coronavirus. The Government must use the Budget to bring forward this programme, unlocking the potential of Britain’s builders and helping us grow back better.”
