Government consults on measures to improve customer protections for home upgrades

The government is consulting on measures to increase customer protections relating to home upgrades work following high-publicised failures.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has a consultation on various reforms including creating a single end-to-end consumer protection service, using binding agreements to enforce delivery obligations and developing a government-owned data system to support earlier identification of systemic risks. It is also proposing to introduce a publicly accessible register of installers and retrofit professionals approved to work on government schemes.

It said: “In most cases, work on government schemes is safe and carried out to a high standard. However, evidence of failings in Energy Company Obligation 4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme, has highlighted weaknesses in the current consumer protection and oversight framework for home upgrades.”

It said work should be right first time, the process of home upgrades should be simple and there needs to be “swift remediation and a straightforward process for redress” when things go wrong.

A National Audit Office report last October revealed almosy all homes fitted with external insulation under two government retrofit schemes need remediation work to correct “major issues” including damp and mould.

The NAO’s said 98% of homes given external wall insulation under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) 4 and Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) will require repair work, affecting up to 23,000 homes.

DESNZ said the reforms to customer protections will support the delivery of the govenrment’s £15bn Warm Homes Plan, which will provide households across the country with solar panels and heat pumps.

The plan will include targeted interventions for low-income households, upgrades for social housing and new protections for renters.

The consultation runs until 10 September.