JUST 20,000 eco-vouchers have been dished out to homeowners to help make their homes greener and more energy-efficient, damning new figures have revealed.
MPs blasted the “snails pace” rollout and warned it would take ten YEARS to meet ministers’ targets of improving 600,000 households.
The green measures aim to help climate costs and drive down energy bills.
Brits can apply for up to £5,000 in Government help through the voucher scheme to install extra insulation, eco-friendly boilers, or even draft-proofing and double glazing.
Just 150 have been dished out every day so far, Business Minister Lord Callanan revealed in letters to the Environmental Audit Committee.
Ministers will launch a £6.9million skills competition in September to rally up support for the measures, but MPs fear it will be too late ahead of the deadline to make a difference.
The MPs called on the Chancellor to use the Budget to extend the scheme past March 2022 to give more people the chance to get involved. And they expressed grave concerns about the lack of accredited engineers taking part in the scheme to achieve its eco-goals.
Committee Chair Philip Dunne MP, said last night the principle of the green was great – but it must speed up or will fail to work as planned. He said: “Issuing vouchers is continuing at snail’s pace, with only 20,000 of the 600,000 target issued four months in – at this rate it will take over 10 years to fulfil the Government’s expectation.
“Many of the builders and installers that can do the work are in limbo as a result of the time taken to approve applications, and perversely we have heard evidence some are having to lay off skilled workers as orders have been stalled pending confirmation of vouchers.
“The principle of the Green Homes Grant is a timely initiative not only to boost energy efficiency of homes – which is urgently needed to stem carbon emissions – but to address our growing unemployment crisis triggered by the pandemic.
“But unless overhauled and further extended, this scheme will fail to deliver its ambition.”
