Ed Miliband is probably wishing that his flagship energy efficiency policy had landed at a more auspicious moment.

It was not ideal, after all, to announce a £15bn investment in the retrofit industry just a week before the public accounts committee (PAC) urged the Serious Fraud Office to launch a probe into that very same sector.

Of course, the scandal around the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 4 scheme is not fresh news, with the NAO publishing its bombshell report on the matter last October, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) had its own share of responsibility, having repeatedly delayed the release of the plan.

But, however unfortunate the coincidence of the release of the Warm Homes Plan and PAC chair Geoffrey Clifton-Brown’s intervention, it does draw to attention the particular difficulty that Miliband’s department faces in delivering its ambitious plans.