By Paul Sweeney, Labour MP for Glasgow North East
FIVE years ago, the Green Deal was launched to great fanfare by the Tory Government with the promise of a win-win situation for homeowners: lower energy bills and the chance to do their bit for the environment.
If it seemed too good to be true it has turned out to be so. Dozens of my constituents signed up to install Green Deal-financed improvements to their homes such as solar panels and insulated cladding but this has proved to be one of the worst decisions they made.
Instead of realising the vision of a flagship programme to reduce fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency, a failure to regulate the scheme allowed it to be exploited. People thought, as the scheme was approved and accredited by the Government, they could trust its credentials and sign up.
In 2015 a constituent handed over her life savings to a Cambuslang-based Green Deal provider, Home Energy & Lifestyle Management Systems (HELMS) to put external wall insulation on her timber-framed house. Another, an elderly lady, has been left with £17,000 worth of debt after signing up with HELMS, with no sign of redress. They are among many left in limbo by HELMS. The company is believed to have carried out similar work on more than160 properties locally without obtaining the necessary building warrants while promising free solar panels and cavity wall insulation to save thousands of pounds.
Normally this would be easily remedied with a retrospective application for a warrant from Glasgow City Council but, because building standards were not adhered to by HELMS, no backdated planning permission can be granted without costly surveys. In addition, the statutory fee for a building warrant will be tripled where works have already been completed. Residents do not have the financial resources to fund this and, in the absence of building warrants, the houses are uninsurable and unsellable. Residents feel like they are effectively imprisoned by their homes.
I am asking the council to waive the multiplier fee for the retrospective warrant and to cover the cost of the surveys. I have met representatives of the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) to raise my constituents’ concerns. In the last year alone, the GDFC has upheld 169 complaints against HELMS, compared with 14 complaints against all other contractors upheld since 2013. Some 154 cases against HELMS remain under consideration by the GDFC.
A piecemeal approach to handling complaints has put the onus on the victims. HELMS suggested this was a systemic failure of regulation by the Government and that a proactive approach is needed to tackle the failure of the Green Deal scheme.
After HELMS made more than six million nuisance sales calls it was fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Department of Energy and Climate Change also fined the firm another £10,500. The company was put into liquidation by its owners after paying just £10,000 of the fines owed.
Most people would consider a government-backed scheme like this to carry a copper-bottomed guarantee. For many of my constituents the feeling is one of betrayal. The Government and the GDFC must find a remedy. This is why I joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Green Deal Misselling. I will take part in a debate at Westminster this morning, secured by fellow group member, SNP MP Gavin Newlands, on Green Deal mis-selling. A minister responsible must attend and respond. The Government must compensate and protect people who have suffered because of this scheme.
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