Early Closure of Green Homes Grant Scheme shocks industry
From 5pm on Wednesday 31st March, the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme which has so far resulted in 5,800 energy saving measures being installed across homes in the UK, will close to new applications.
Valid voucher applications up until 5pm on the 31st March will be processed, and vouchers in the system, currently around 100,000, will be honoured.
The Local Authority Delivery element of the Green Homes Grant scheme and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund will be awarded an additional £400m throughout 2022/23 to maintain the momentum of decarbonising low income homes- but no funding streams for the able to pay sector will be available.
The £6.9 million awarded through the Green Homes Grant skills and training competition will be unaffected by this announcement and the Government are keen to highlight that the £9.2bn pledged in their manifesto for decarbonising homes remains committed.
Commenting on this unexpected announcement, David Cowburn, Chief Operating Officer at NAPIT said: ‘The impact of this announcement on installers who have undertaken significant investment and effort to become qualified, competent and certified to offer vouchers to homeowners must be recognised. The stop/start nature of Government policy is this area is having a huge impact on installer confidence, and the ambition to decarbonise homes through energy efficiency measures and the target to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 will not be possible without installers. We are working with officials to identify opportunities to keep our members engaged in the decarbonisation of homes agenda and call for clarity and long-term thinking going forward.'
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Article Published:
29 March 2021
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