Hi I am Alisbah and I am a Year 10 pupil completing my work experience with Norman Galloway Estate Agency. Here is my Blog:
Botched insulation left 30,000 homes in the UK at risk
Did you know that in the UK the government-funded energy efficiency improvements are drastically failing with clear evidence of widespread fraud? If you had no idea, then continue reading as I tell you about a ridiculous scheme that should have never happened to begin with.
Firstly, almost all external wall insulation and a third of internal wall insulation fitted under two public funded schemes which were the governments Energy Complication Obligation (ECO) and the Great British Insulation Schemes (GBIS), will need to be ripped out and replaced due to botched insulation which is poorly installed home insulation.
Secondly, thousands of homes will need expensive repairs to correct the botched insulation work that could very likely be causing severe issues such as dangerous damp, mould and structural issues. Can you believe how absurd that is? Homeowners and Landlords were left in a state of despair - unsure on how to fix this awful situation.
Information about the companies:
All the work which was done were funded by the Governments ECO and GBIS. ECO and GBIS are both said to provide free or partly funded ‘insulation’ for low income, vulnerable households to reduce energy bills in the least energy efficient homes. Both are administered by DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) and delivered by energy companies and TrustMark (a government-endorsed quality scheme).
The National Audit Office found that 98% of external wall insulation installed under the government scheme was defective, posing immediate health and safety risks which already shows us the lack of effort these companies have put in the work they have done and funded. If you are going to fund for work to be done in already low-income households then at least do it to the standard you have said it will be at.
Homeowners opinion of this dire situation:
One homeowner ’Mohammed’ expressed to the BBC feeling that he hasn’t been given ‘nothing but broken promises and false hope’ because he could not ‘sleep in his bedroom due to damp and mould and described how the ‘damp and mould from poorly installed insulations worsened his father’s chronic asthma’ leading to a decline in health which was awful to read about. I can’t begin to fathom how he must have been feeling.
Another homeowner had told the BBC that the damage from the work in 2013 has left her bedroom to ‘damp to sleep in and may be causing her breathing difficulties’.
Imran Hussain The Labour MP of the Bradford East has called on the government to expand their investigation on all installations done under this scheme. ‘All families who tried to do the right thing by making their homes warmer and greener have been left paying the price for failure and negligence’.
Not just this but a report by the National Audit Office indicates that some households may face repairs exceeding up to £18,000 per property and in extreme cases repair bills have reached to £250,000 with the government promising that no household will have to pay for repairs however homeowners still worry about the financial responsibilities due to the government being ‘unreliable’. However, the government have taken immediate action to protect consumers by suspending 39 businesses from installing new insulation and ensuring that qualified professionals check every installation under these schemes. Homeowners have also been advised to contact the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) for support and to address the issues properly to avoid health risks. The report also highlights suspicions over fraud within the ECO scheme with evidence that businesses have falsified claims for ECO installations to 16,500 homes potentially claiming between £56 million to £165 million.
The government have also changed Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) in the private rented sector which means that any home will need a Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above to be legally rented or sold. Around 2.5 million rented homes in England and Wales have fallen under the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C but the government are expecting this level to be improved to just 2-4 years at a cost to landlords of up to £15,000 per property however this has been argued by NRLA Chief Executive Ben Beadle that these ‘governments ambitious timelines for energy efficient upgrades are unrealistic for many reasons’, one of which is that there has been a severe decrease of skilled tradespeople which are set up to only rise to 250,000 in the coming years and could lead to ‘confusion and dissatisfaction among landlords’.
Furthermore, because of having under skilled workers, these companies assume that they can cut corners without getting the job done correctly. NRLA Chief Executive Ben Beadle voices his opinion saying ‘this shambolic situation is something that should have never been allowed to happen’ telling us that this situation could have been avoided IF the government's ECO and GBIS companies had done their job correctly which they had not.
In conclusion, there are a few possible explanations as to why many insulations were carried out to a poor standard
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having an under skilled workforce with work being subcontracted (being employed by someone else to do the work) to individuals or businesses who have no idea what they are doing and whether they are doing it to a good standard or not
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businesses ‘cutting corners’ when undertaking installation work
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uncertainty over which standards apply to which jobs
This just goes to tell us that companies ‘cutting corners’ are not ‘shortening the process’, they are, in a nutshell, simply, not doing their job effectively.
Quote from Diane Bialek Managing Director Norman Galloway Estate Agency:
"Thirty thousand homes put at risk because corners were cut and standards were ignored.
Bodged insulation isn’t just a construction failure — it’s families living with uncertainty, homeowners facing huge remediation bills, and landlords and investors picking up the pieces of a mess they didn’t create.
Many are now battling damp and mould issues, frustrated tenants, expensive repairs and difficult conversations, all because somebody somewhere signed off work that simply wasn’t good enough.
The fallout from this scandal will be felt for years to come. It should never have happened in the first place.
At the same time, it presents an important lesson for the next generation entering the property industry. As part of their work experience with us, our Year 10 student has researched this issue and written the following blog exploring the causes, consequences and lessons that can be learned from one of the UK’s biggest housing failures in recent years.
Are you dealing with the fallout from failed insulation or retrofit works? I’d be interested to hear how it’s affected landlords, investors and homeowners in your area. "
Founder Diane Bialek Nottinghamshire Property Blog
Director/Chair Norman Galloway Homes CIC
Sources:
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BBC iPlayer (comments and videos)
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Google
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NRLA Property Winter 2025 page 49
