Green Homes Grant fails to deliver
The Green Homes Grant, which was announced in August 2020 in reaction to the pandemic, failed to deliver the expectations of BEIS and was cancelled on 31 March 2021. The grant offered was too low to be attractive to householders and proved awkward and unprofitable for installers. The administrative barriers erected limited the issue of vouchers to a small fraction of what was originally intended.
Delays in making payments have damaged the installation industry and put back the Government's plans to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions.
The Green Homes Grant was cancelled on 31 March 2021. The failure of the Green Homes Grant follows the failure of the Green Deal. The Government has not yet announced what plans it has to fullfil the Ten Point Plan or address the very urgent problem of addressing Climate Change.
Green Homes Grant
August 2020
The government announced a Green Homes Grant in August 2020 which would give homeowners in England a voucher to install one or more of the following "primary categories" in existing properties:
- solid wall, under-floor, cavity wall or roof insulation
- air source heat pump or ground source heat pump
- solar thermal
In addition (if households have installed one of the above), households could use their voucher for further energy saving measures. These "secondary categories" include one or more of the following:
- double or triple glazing/secondary glazing, when replacing single glazing
- upgrading to energy efficient doors
- hot water tank/appliance tank thermostats/heating controls
Households could only have used their voucher for "secondary categories" up to the value they have spent on "primary categories".
The voucher could be used (from the end of September) to pay two-thirds of the cost of these improvements up to a value of £5,000. Those on low incomes could receive 100% of the costs up to a value of £10,000.
Suppliers had to be registered with TrustMark and the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) to take part in the scheme.
The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the scheme was expected to deliver improvements for over 600,000 households, while creating an estimated 100,000 jobs in green construction. To have 600,000 homes install a heat pump in the next six months would be a great start. However, that would still leave around 24,000,000 still needing to be converted to low carbon heating. The scheme was pulled on 31 March 2020 with only a small fraction of planned vouchers having been issued.
Opportunity for heat pump installers
The government had said that this would be a great opportunity for heat pump installers.
Beware, however, that funding for the Green Homes Grant is limited to £2bn and that there may be no follow-on after 31 March 2022. However, the scheme was terminated early on 31 March 2021.
See Renewable Heating See Renewable Cooling