GB Insulation branded ‘great Tory fiasco’

A flagship government energy efficiency scheme has been labelled a “great Tory insulation fiasco” by Labour.

The Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS), which was initially set up as a government-funded extension of the industry-backed ECO (energy company obligation), is meant to upgrade the energy efficiency of 300,000 homes over three years.

However, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s latest statistical update on the scheme shows that only 3,284 households had received installations by the end of December, 10 months after its launch nearly a year ago.

In DESNZ ministers question time in the House of Commons, Labour MPs queued up to slam the slow roll out of the scheme.

Labelling the scheme as a “disaster”, shadow climate change minister Kerry McCarthy said: “The Great British insulation scheme is proving to be a great Tory insulation fiasco.”

Kate Hollern, Labour MP for Blackburn, said that at the current rates it would take the government 60 years to meet its target of 300,000 home upgrades.

Recalling previous botched government energy efficiency schemes, Sheffield Labour MP Paul Blomfield said: “It comes after the green deal and the green homes grant, but frankly it looks like another failure.

“My constituents want their bills cut, emissions reduced and their homes insulated, but government incompetence is standing in the way.”

And north-east Labour MP Liz Twist said the last 14 years has seen “fiasco after fiasco with energy saving schemes from this government”.

Responding to the opposition criticism, junior energy minister Amanda Solloway said energy efficiency is “incredibly important” for the government and £592 million alone has been committed to the GBIS.

The GBIS was set up with the aim of offering a larger number of lower cost energy efficiency measures to a wider group of households than the ECO4 scheme, which is more tightly targeted at the lowest income earners living in the most poorly insulated properties.

In better news for ministers on the home heating front, new DESNZ figures show a 39% increase in applications to the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS).

The total number of applications for the heat pump grants was more than 2,000 in January 2024, which was 39% higher than in the same month last year.

The surge in applications follows the government’s decision in October to increase maximum BUS grants from £5,000 to £7,500.

Up to the end of January, the scheme has received a total of 33,424 applications for help with heat pump installations and has issued more than £133 million in vouchers to customers.

At DESNZ question time, energy security secretary of state Claire Coutinho also said that the government is due to publish the next steps of its long-stalled review of electricity market arrangements “imminently”.

And shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband urged Coutinho to “face down the headbangers on her back benches” and lift what he described as the government’s “uniquely restrictive planning regime” on onshore wind development.

Conservative MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns urged the secretary of state to “ditch these unworkable and unaffordable net zero policies and let the British people decide how to heat their homes and what cars to drive so that they can keep more of their own money”.