Government pulls plug on Green Homes Grant scheme

Ministers have axed a scheme to help people make their homes more energy efficient, just six months after launching it.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced over the weekend (27 March) that the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme launched last year will close to new applications on 31 March at 5pm.

The scheme was launched last September and offered households the opportunity to obtain funding for up to two-thirds of the cost of the energy saving measures identified – up to £5,000 – in the form of new vouchers.

Lower income households could be entitled to have as much as £10,000 of the costs covered.

But in a statement issued on Saturday, BEIS said it was ‘designed to provide a short-term economic boost while tackling our contribution to climate change’.

‘Applications made before the end of March deadline will be honoured and any vouchers already issued may be extended upon request,’ the statement added.

Over the weekend, the government also announced £300m of extra funding is to be invested to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s homes through energy efficiency and low carbon heating schemes.

Commenting on the news, shadow climate change minister Matthew Pennycook said: ‘The funding announced today doesn’t even come close to plugging the investment gap created by the government’s decision to slash more than £1bn from its Green Homes Grant scheme and then scrap it altogether. Ministers might talk a good game on energy efficiency but their staggering ineptitude when it comes to decarbonising the country’s housing stock speaks for itself.’

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