Government Announcement: Action to protect households with poor quality insulation
On 23 January, Minister for Energy Consumers, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, delivered a statement to Parliament, setting out the action she planned to take to protect households which had received insulation installed to a poor standard.
Minister Fahnbulleh’s statement highlighted that many homeowners have received sub-standard insulation installation via government funding such as the Energy Company Obligation 4 (ECO4) and Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS). Minister Fahnbulleh’s statement focused on action taken against companies that had poorly installed external wall insulation (EWI) and internal wall insulation (IWI).
Since the death of Awaab Ishaak in 2020, there has been increased focus on the quality of housing and poor living conditions, particularly in social housing. News outlets such as the BBC have been highlighting the plight of residents who have received poorly installed retrofit.
PCA members understand that poor quality installation can lead to damp and mould in properties and in our consultation responses to the Future Homes Standard, Awaab’s Law and at All Party Parliamentary Group meetings on Healthy Homes and Buildings, we highlighted this. Former PCA Chief Executive Steve Hodgson, also highlighted these issues to government and TrustMark over many years.
The problems which the Labour government is seeking to redress are not new: 10 years ago, journal Green Building highlighted the risks associated with poorly installed retrofit. More recently, the 2021 academic paper, Barriers to domestic retrofit quality: are failures in retrofit standards a failure of retrofit standards, explored the perception of retrofit amongst those working in the industry. Although a small-scale study of 22 participants, few of the focus group attendees were aware of PAS2030 and most believed they did not need training to install Internal Wall Insulation (IWI). Some, but not all, of the participants in the study were aware of how poorly installed insulation could cause damp and mould.
Under the Labour government’s Warm Homes Plan, it expects up to 300,000 properties to benefit from grants for heat pumps and insulation during 2025. The PCA continues to support the government’s aspirations to achieve net zero by future-proofing new building stock and retrofitting existing building stock. However, as a result of continued poor installation practices, and the industry’s lack of awareness of the importance of training, we may see homeowners lose trust in the sector.
Under the ECO4 grant, other types of insulation, such as spray foam, were also funded and were not referred to in the Minister’s announcement. Our members have seen significant issues in the domestic sector caused by spray foam and in 2024 we and our members were part of several BBC and local radio shows, focusing on this impact. Improper installation and ventilation issues have led a quarter of mortgage providers to not lend on properties with spray foam installed and according to the HomeOwners Alliance, there are currently no equity release lenders that will lend against a property where spray foam has been installed after construction.
We have been working with industry stakeholders to develop a consumer guide for those who have had spray foam installed as a retrofit measure and hope this will be available before the spring. Alongside the HomeOwners Alliance, the PCA is writing to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in response to the 23 January announcement, to request that other types of insulation, including poorly installed spray foam, are considered in the government action.
We know that some of our members offer whole-house assessments and have Retrofit Coordinators working in their teams. As our members are well aware of the importance of good ventilation in preventing damp and mould, they are ideally placed to support homeowners in insulating their homes.