Citizen’s Advice warns GHG could become another ‘stop start’ policy

Citizens Advice has urged the government to avoid a “boom and bust” approach to energy efficiency ahead of next week’s launch of the Green Homes Grant (GHG) scheme.

In a new paper, published today (25 September), the advice charity outlines the key lessons learnt from the energy efficiency schemes rolled out over the past decade.

The report identifies “stop start” initiatives as one of the pitfalls to be sidestepped by policy makers, echoing industry concerns that longer-term measures must be put in place to tackle energy efficiency measures once the £2 billion GHG programme has expired at the end of next March.

“Several past policies have had to either ramp-up very quickly or have ended abruptly. This kind of stop and start can be bad for consumers and businesses”, it says

As an example, Citizens Advice point to the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF), which was the last major energy efficiency grant scheme in England.

It says the first release of grants under the Green Deal were awarded more quickly than expected, leading to the scheme being put on hold without any notice, while the second were all taken up within 24 hours.

The report says consumers signed up for measures on the basis they would get a grant, only to later be asked to pay for the whole cost by installation companies, some of which advertised offers that “unintentionally out of date”.

“When schemes end with no follow-up, as with the GDHIF, people who missed out are left at a dead-end. This may weaken trust in government schemes and put them off engaging with this market in future.

“The same could happen if the scheme that follows is significantly more or less generous. Some homeowners are already put-off by what they view as inconsistent government policy in this area.

“A lack of long-term certainty also makes it harder for reputable firms to get involved in the market and invest in skills. Ultimately, experience has proven that inconsistent policy can lead to higher delivery costs and lower quality work.”

The report also calls for effective enforcement of standards among installers, including “frequent monitoring” particularly early in the scheme to identify and crack down on scams or mis-selling activity.

It says quality assurance measures for previous schemes, such as Ofgem’s sampling of work carried out under the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO), has been “patchy” and has not always prevented poor quality work getting through.