What? You mean a rushed national plan turns out to be rubbish?
Be still our beating hearts. You mean that a central government plan to achieve such things turns out to be rubbish? In fact, worse than rubbish, actually dangerous and impoverishing?
Almost all the external insulation fitted under the previous government’s energy efficiency scheme was installed so poorly it will have to be repaired or replaced, an investigation has found.
Thousands of homeowners who took advantage of the home insulation schemes have been left with incompetently fitted cladding that in some cases is likely to cause damp and mould.
Of the roughly 23,000 homes fitted with external wall insulation under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS), 98% need repairs, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation.
A further 9,000 to 13,000 homes fitted with internal insulation also have major problems – 29% of those who had these works carried out, the NAO said.
As happened in Australia. When there was money aplenty for any bodger to bodge a job then bodgers bodged jobs. In that Australian example to the point where people were hammering nails through live electrical circuits to the displeasure - and death - of some bodgers.
Here in the UK we’ve had insulation that produces nice mushroom crops on the walls of kitchens. Yes, we know, urban farming is all the thing but that level of damp isn’t quite what is meant.
It’s been one of those regular calls. But, we really must insulate everything because climate change. But as we’ve pointed out before around and about when this failed scheme started:
Better insulation will reduce heat loss, of course. We would point out that a great deal of this has already been done. For example, the vast majority of houses without cavity wall insulation are those without cavity walls to insulate.
Nailing foam to the outside - or inside - of houses built to work without foam nailed to them isn’t the way to do it. But if you’re a central bureaucracy pulling levers then that still might seem sensible.
By and large the insulation that can be usefully done to the British housing stock has been done to the British housing stock. That central push just led to wasted effort as the NAO has just shown.
This isn’t a Tory or Labour or Green or whatever thing. It’s the inevitable outcome of people with no detailed knowledge insisting upon activity. You know, a central bureaucracy detailing what all must do. As we also said:
It is not true that if something needs to be done then government must do it. It is true that if something must be done then the incentives to do it must be properly aligned. So, the nation faces possibly bankrupting energy bills now and in the near future. They’re faced household by household too. Which means that every household in the country now has the finest incentive possible to find out about - and do - whatever insulation is possible.
We don’t need a government plan simply because we’ve already got a plan. Those prices work because prices do work. If soaring energy bills hitting wallet by wallet don’t incentivise people to insulate the loft - those few who haven’t done that already - then nothing will. It’s precisely because energy bills are soaring that we don’t need any more or other government plan.
Saying “We told you so” is terribly First Wife behaviour but we did indeed tell you so.
Tim Worstall