London – Industry pressure has led the UK government to extend the deadline for work to be carried out under its Green Homes Grant. The new date for the scheme to end is 31 March 2022, a year after the original deadline of 31 March 2021.
UK Government extends Green Homes Grant scheme
Storer: frustration building
The concession is seen as a victory for industry associations such as the IMA, which represents polyurethane insulation companies in the UK. It had voiced its concerns about the scheme back in August.
IMA chairman Simon Storer said that the extension is a good start. However, he warned: 'At the moment, Government are dragging their feet.'
He remains concerned it will be difficult to spend all the money available improving the insulation of housing sufficiently. This is partly because there is still no way to match qualified installers with demand for insulation under the project.
'There are a lot of enquiries that have ended up in frustration because there are too few installers to do the work,' he said.
Storer added that it would be helpful if there were a list of approved installers in each region. This could be backed up by a central clearing point that would allow installers to see where the work is, and allocate their resources to match the demand.
