Nearly 30,000 homeowners are stuck in unsafe conditions and facing massive bills after a government efficiency scheme resulted in what a group of MPs have termed an “abject failure”.
The government-backed ECO scheme was set up in 2022 to allow vulnerable or low-income households in the UK to take up home improvements like insulation, heat pumps and solar panels through grants.
But four years on, a plague of widespread, poor-quality work has led to intense criticism of how the scheme – which is largely funded through a levy on energy bills – was overseen.
Katie Barrett, 51, said a botched insulation job at her East Sussex home has left her with “no quality of life”.
“I got signed off from work six months afterwards because my health has got so much worse and I’m not well enough to work,” she told The Independent.
The personal tutor had work carried out in February 2024 after applying through the ECO scheme. Nearly two years later, she faces a bill of more than £40,000 to undo the shoddy work.
The contractor that visited her home – seemingly set up to take advantage of the ECO scheme – is also now in administration, leaving her with little idea of how or when the repairs will be carried out.
Last year, the National Audit Office said that external wall insulation installed under ECO was defective in 98 per cent of cases, presenting immediate health and safety risks.
It found the reason there were so many poor-quality installations could be down to work subcontracted to firms and individuals who were not competent, businesses cutting corners and uncertainty over standards.
It is now down to the original installers to repair any botched work, but it is believed that many have now gone into administration. In these scenarios, the government guarantees that repair costs will be covered up to £20,000, but some face bills of up to £250,000, the Public Accounts Committee warned last week.
The Commons spending watchdog also took the unusual step of recommending the government refer the issue to the Serious Fraud Office, raising concerns that fraud may have been systemic in the programme.
After the initial work was carried out, Ms Barrett found that her broadband cable had been severed and there was a screw through a pipe to the boiler, leaving her without internet or heating.
A surveyor later told her that insulation had been fitted against her external wall, trapping damp against it. More damp and mould were trapped in the roof, while new insulation on the kitchen ceiling had started leaking water.
Ms Barrett said: “There’s no way those cowboys are coming back here. They lied to me and destroyed my house, and treated me with such contempt.”
Helen Cresswell, 51, from South Wales, said her ECO installation went “horribly wrong” when it came to getting a new heating system installed. She has not had the same problem with her new insulation, but faced issues with new radiators which she was told she had no choice over as the scheme was “all or nothing”.
“The plumber arrived at 8am,” she explained. “By 8.30pm, my boiler was out and my floorboards were being ripped up.
“I came home in the evening, and it was just a mess. The radiators were too big for the rooms; two of the rooms literally turned from a double room to a single. There was no way to get furniture back in.”
She describes how pipes were jutting from floors and ceilings, plaster had been ripped off the walls, and new damp issues are now causing mould to form around skirting boards. She was not asked what she wanted to be done with the old boiler, but she never saw it again.
After Ms Cresswell confronted the plumber over the quality of the work the next day, he left while the property still had no water or heating. It would take a month of “phoning and phoning” and the involvement of her local MP for the company to send someone else.
“They just didn’t care that we were living in these kinds of conditions at all,” she said.
The mother-of-one, who suffers from Crohn’s disease and is immunocompromised, said the situation gave her a sinus infection because of the dust and dirt, causing her to become ill and struggle to work.
She was also dismayed when she found that her daughter’s memory bear made with fabric from the shirt of her husband, who died a few years ago, had been damaged beyond repair.
And similar to Katie’s situation, the company that carried out Helen’s work has now gone into administration, leaving her with little idea of who is going to repair the poor-quality work.
At last year’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the ECO scheme was being brought to an end, taking £150 a year off an average family’s energy bills. On Wednesday, the government announced its warm homes plan – £5 billion of public investment to help households pay for insulation and green tech.
Minister for energy consumers Martin McCluskey said: “We inherited a broken system from the previous government. It was not fit for purpose and had multiple points of failure. We are cleaning up this mess.
“Every household with external wall insulation installed under these two schemes are being audited, at no cost to the consumer. And we have been clear that no household should be asked to pay any money to put things right.
“Of all non-compliant properties found to date, over 50 per cent have been remediated. We have also taken the decision to end the ECO scheme and instead put more investment through local authorities, which have a significantly better record of delivery.
“We are reforming the system of consumer protection to better protect people. We will establish a new Warm Homes Agency, bringing in a single system for retrofit work to provide stronger, formal government oversight and driving up quality.”
