Audit office blames UK government for failed £1.5 billion green home scheme | green economy

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A “failed” plan to isolate England’s dilapidated homes collapsed after six months because officials rushed to design it, set an undeliverable timetable and failed to heed industry warnings, Whitehall spending watchdog found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) blamed the government for spoiling the opportunity to help families improve energy efficiency in their homes, reduce carbon emissions, and create tens of thousands of jobs by expediting the masterplan.

The £1.5 billion Green House Grant was seen as a key part of Boris Johnson’s “rebuilding green” pledge and a pivotal part of the government’s attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from heating homes and buildings, which make up around 19% of the UK’s total. emissions.

Gareth Davis, president of the NAO, said the government’s focus on creating an “immediate economic stimulus” through grants, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, meant the program had been expedited.

The government has set a 12-week timetable for designing the scheme, which it hopes will enable up to 600,000 households to save up to £600 on their energy bills by raising their energy efficiency, and support up to 82,500 jobs over six months.

It went ahead with the ambitious schedule “although no bidder believed it was possible” to fully prepare the application system in time for the launch of the program, according to the NAO, resulting in long delays in the processing of grant applications and nearly 3,000 complaints between October 2020 until April 2021.

“As a result, its carbon-reduction benefits have been greatly reduced and in the end, it didn’t create the number of jobs the government had hoped for,” Davies said.

If all existing applications are processed, less than 10% of planned home upgrades will take place. About 47,500 homes are expected to receive grants, at a cost to taxpayers of around £314m. This includes £50.5 million for program management and administration, or a cost of over £1,000 per upgrade.

The Office of Civil Aviation has called on the government to determine how its various household energy efficiency plans align with its overall decarbonization plans by the end of the year, including detailed timelines.

Meg Hillier, chair of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, said the green house grant was “set up for failure” due to the “undeliverable schedule and overly complex design that did not take into account the needs of suppliers and homeowners”.

Philip Den MB, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said the NSA’s “sober assessment of the plan’s failures” shows it was a policy “placed on hooves without proper consultation.”

Climate activists said the harsh ruling on the scheme threatens to undermine the UK’s credibility ahead of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

“The green house grant has failed to materialize because of cowboy politicians, not cowboy builders, or because energy efficiency improvements are a bad idea,” said Doug Barr, Greenpeace UK policy director.

He said the “shoddy handling” of the scheme had left “homeowners frustrated, businesses out of their pockets, business promises unfulfilled, and the UK no closer to decarbonizing its homes.” Bar Chancellor Rishi Sunak has called for £12 billion in cash to help cut emissions Carbon from our homes in the next spending report.

A government spokesperson said: “As the National Aviation Office acknowledges, the Green House Scholarship voucher system was designed as a short-term economic incentive and delivered during the ongoing pandemic.”

The spokesman added that the government would spend £1.3 billion this year to upgrade 50,000 additional homes, while supporting hundreds of thousands of skilled green jobs.

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