Grenfell Cladding Firm A ‘Significant Source Of Revenue’ For BRE

The BRE received a “significant source of revenue” by producing desktop studies for combustible Kingspan insulation used on Grenfell Tower, the inquiry has heard. Tom Lennon, a consultant at BRE, a testing body, claimed the studies could be a “huge source of income” for the BRE in a 2015 email. Desktop studies, allowed under the pre-Grenfell building regulations system, used the results of actual full-scale fire tests on cladding systems to model variations to those specific materials tested, in order to calculate fire performance. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/grenfell-cladding-firm-a-significant-source-of-revenue-for-bre-inquiry-told/5110709.article 

Keep Funding Green Homes To Meet Emissions Target, Say Businesses

Business groups are urging the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to keep funding home insulation and other low-carbon measures under the green homes grant, which is under threat from cuts. They warned that moves to reduce the amount of money paid out under the scheme, or abandon it altogether, would make it harder to reach the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050, and damage the UK’s credibility as host nation of this year’s Cop26 UN climate summit and president of the G7 group of rich nations. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/22/keep-funding-green-homes-to-meet-emissions-target-say-businesses 

Grenfell Insulation Was Sold At Almost 50% Discount, Inquiry Hears

Grenfell Tower may have been used as “a guinea pig” for a newly branded insulation material that burned and released toxic gas the inquiry into the disaster has heard. Foam boards used to insulate the west London council block were sold at an almost 50% discount by their manufacturer, Celotex, to contractors who were asked for help making the refurbishment a “case study” for the firm, the public inquiry was told. The project manager for Harley, the cladding contractor, admitted that he did not check it complied with building regulations to prevent fires spreading through the external walls of tall buildings. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/21/grenfell-insulation-was-sold-at-almost-50-discount-inquiry-hears 

Coronavirus: Home Insulation 'Could Create Cheap Jobs'

Making people's homes cosy is the cheapest way to create jobs as the UK prepares to fight recession, a report says. Its authors say a job insulating homes would be much cheaper than creating a road maintenance job, for example. Jobs in building roads are more costly to create, as the work is heavily mechanised. The figures will be sent to the Treasury, which is reviewing a package of job stimulus measures for July. The report's authors say a job in home insulation can be created for £59,000 - that's far less than a road maintenance job, which is estimated by the government to be more than £250,000. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52999337

High Rise Flats: Insulation – Parliamentary Written Answer

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2020 to Question 7630 on High Rise Flats: Insulation, what steps his Department will take to reduce the time period between the removal of combustible cladding and the installation of replacement non-combustible cladding.

Esther McVey: We have regular engagement with a named contact from each high-rise residential building with unsafe ACM cladding to ensure progress with remediation is being made. Where building owners are failing to make acceptable progress towards completing remediation, further action will be taken. Building safety is the responsibility of the building owner.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-01-30/10388

Grenfell Tower: Sixty Blocks 'Fail New Fire Test'

Cladding and insulation used in at least 60 tower blocks will be deemed to have failed a new fire safety test. The test was more thorough than previous checks after the Grenfell Tower fire, which only tested cladding. The new test checked the cladding in combination with the foam insulation that was used in Grenfell. Nine blocks in Salford are the only local authority-owned buildings so far known to be affected. Local Government Association chairman Lord Porter said buildings owned by housing associations and private sector landlords will also be on the list. Read more on the BBC website.

Green Deal Scheme Did Not Deliver Energy Savings

An abandoned government programme to insulate UK homes cost taxpayers nearly £400m and did not deliver energy or carbon savings, a report by official auditors has found. The green deal scheme was launched in January 2013 with the intention of handing out loans to improve domestic energy efficiency. It folded in July 2015 despite claims by David Cameron that his would be “the greenest government ever”. The National Audit Office has examined the scheme for the first time and found that the Department for Energy and Climate Change spent £240m on the scheme. Another £154m has been spent on the green deal home improvement fund which was set up to provide subsidies for efficiency measures, auditors found. Read more on the Guardian website.

Green Homes Plan Finally Gets Funding For Just 10% Of Proposed Houses

A groundbreaking project to give thousands of sub-standard homes a dramatic green makeover has finally won EU approval, but only after a massive downgrading of its ambition. The Energiesprong project had hoped to provide a wave of 10-day makeovers for over 100,000 British housing association and council homes, installing wraparound insulating facades, solar panels and Ikea kitchens. But to get an initial €3.6m (£2.6m) of EU support, the group had to scale back their ambitions and now plans just 5,000 retrofits in the UK, and the same number in France. Read more on the Guardian website.

Fuel Poverty Killed 15,000 People Last Winter

An estimated 15,000 people died unnecessarily between December and March because they were living in homes they couldn’t afford to heat, new figures show. The news has led campaigners to hit out at what they claim is an inadequate Conservative pledge to help freezing people by insulating homes. Fuel poverty campaigners reckon the number of excess winter deaths surged last winter to 49,260, of which around 14,780 were due to people living in cold homes. The Energy Bill Revolution estimates that the average number of excess winter deaths over the previous five years was 27,830, so last winter saw an increase of 77 per cent above the five year average. Read more on the Independent website.

Green Deal - £70 Million Available 16th March

The budget for the third release of Green Deal funding is £70 million and will open to new applications from midday, Monday, March 16, to allow households in England and Wales to claim up to £5,600 to help with the cost of installing certain energy saving measures such as solid wall insulation, double glazing, boilers, cavity wall and floor insulation.  Energy Ministers have launched the latest phase of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund but funds are limited and DECC say it can vary the terms of the scheme (including the incentive rates) or suspend or close the scheme, with immediate effect, without notice and at any time. Read more on the Residential Landlords Association website.

1000s Of HMOs Will Not Benefit From New Energy Regs

Tens of thousands of people living in some of England’s most poorly insulated houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) will not benefit from new standards that will force landlords to make energy improvements.  The regulations, first provided for in 2011 but only enacted last week, outlaw the letting of properties with the poorest energy ratings of ‘F’ and ‘G’ from 2018. However, HMOs, defined as homes with three or more tenants who form more than one household, will be excluded. Read more on 24dash.

Landlords to Be Banned From Letting Draughtiest Homes

Landlords will be banned from renting out England and Wales’ draughtiest homes from 2018 in a bid to cut energy bills and carbon emissions. The new regulations are expected to help around a million tenants who are paying as much as £1,000 a year more than the average annual bill of £1,265 because of poorly insulated homes. Campaigners hailed the move as potentially the most significant piece of legislation in a generation aimed at improving building stock in England and Wales, which is some of the oldest and leakiest in Europe. Read more on the Guardian website.

Green Deal Fund Exhausts £24m in Just A Day

Twenty-four hours into the Government's Green Deal cashback relaunch and £24 million of taxpayers' money put aside for solid wall insulation has already run dry. The latest injection of Green Deal cash paid householders up to £5,600 for taking out solid wall insulation and a further two home improvement measures. Money still remains available in the £6m fund for the other measures. The solid wall insulation fund paid up to £4,000 on 67pc of the cost, providing cladding on interior or exterior walls to keep in heat. It is used when cavity wall insulation is not possible. The Government set aside £24 million for solid wall insulation and £6 million for other energy-efficiency measures. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Government to Re-Open £100m Green Deal Fund

The government has re-launched its £100m Green Deal incentive scheme after an earlier version was forced to close. Only £30m of new £100m cash back fund will be available in the first wave. This will be split into two pots £24m for solid wall insulation and £6m for other measures. Households can claim up to £1,000 for installing two of the measures from an approved list recommended by their Green Deal assessor and up to £4,000 for installing solid wall insulation. A second pot of £30m will be released in February. Applications for the first pot are being taken from 10 December. Read more on the Building website.

Households Clear Out New £7,600 Per Home Green Deal Cashback

Households have claimed £25m from the Government to install insulation and double glazing in the first month of a new cashback scheme. The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) said 4,405 households in England and Wales have received vouchers to carry out home improvements under the second phase of the Green Deal. The first phase, a loan scheme, was criticised for being too complicated. Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, said the initial figures exceeded expectations. “The early evidence suggests we have got it right,” he told The Telegraph.  Households can claim up to £7,600 each to install energy saving measures, with the most generous cashback rates on insulation for solid walls. The work has to be financed upfront and then money can be claimed back. There is a pot of £120m available to households this year on a “first come, first served” basis. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Just 12 Homes Get Green Deal Energy Savers

The Government’s flagship Green Deal scheme is making “painfully slow” progress, with just 12 homes installing energy saving measures since its launch in January. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said 71,210 households had been assessed for Green Deal measures such as solar panels and insulation at the end of August, up from 58,124 in July. But only 677 households have gone to the next stage and said they would like to proceed with the scheme. Of these, 12 houses have had measures installed, while 293 properties had quotes accepted on work and 372 properties had installations "pending". The figures also showed the number of homes assessed for energy-saving measures fell in August. There were 13,086 properties assessed during the month, a 4pc fall from July. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Hundreds of Thousands Face Fuel Poverty Misery

A massive shortfall in funding for insulation programmes for low-income households will leave the Government's fuel poverty target in tatters, according to a new report. Research undertaken by fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) shows that hundreds of thousands of households will be living in poorly insulated properties by 2016 – the date by which the Government undertook to eradicate fuel poverty in England. The figures show that even on the most optimistic estimates, 45% of fuel-poor households who could benefit from cavity wall insulation – the single most cost-effective energy-saving measure – will be excluded from support as a result of inadequate funding. Read more on the NEA website.

Green Deal Goes Live

The Government's Green Deal, which is aimed at making the country's buildings more energy efficient, goes live today (28 January).  The scheme offers homeowners and businesses a way of paying for energy efficient improvements such as insulation and new heating systems.  Households in England and Wales who use the Green Deal to make energy saving improvements will also qualify for hundreds of pounds of cashback from the Green Deal Cashback Scheme.  The more work households decide to have done, the more cash they could receive and packages could be worth over £1,000.  Read more on the DECC website.

£125m Green Deal Cashback Scheme Opens

The Green Deal Cashback Scheme is open, with hundreds of pounds of cash available to householders in England and Wales who make energy saving home improvements.  Householders who use the Green Deal to make improvements such as loft insulation, solid wall insulation and new heating systems will qualify. Packages could be worth over £1,000.  The more work households decide to have done, the more cash they could receive. To qualify for the Cashback Scheme, households need to book a Green Deal property assessment so they are then ready to have improvements installed under the Green Deal from 28 January and get their cashback.  Read more on the DECC website.

Landlords in Fix over Green Deal

The majority of large social landlords are not planning to allow tenants to make their own arrangements under the government’s flagship energy efficiency scheme. Citing fears about quality of works, damage to buildings and lenders’ concerns, landlords said they do not want tenants to agree their own deals when the green deal goes live in October.  An Inside Housing snap survey revealed that despite most landlords having no green deal plans in place, just two of the 17 largest landlords in Great Britain would grant consent for tenants to take up green deal offers. Nine landlords ruled out allowing tenants to commission the work while five said they had not decided.  Under the green deal, due to launch on 1 October, households will be able to receive loans to carry out energy-efficiency works on their homes. The cost of the measures – usually insulation – will then be recouped through resulting savings in energy bills. Read more on Inside Housing.