Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department takes to ensure that government funding to cavity wall insulation providers is spent as intended.

There are no current government grant schemes for cavity wall insulation. However cavity wall insulation can be installed under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). ECO requires large energy suppliers to deliver a range of energy efficiency measures, including cavity wall insulation, to eligible households. Ofgem E-Serve administers ECO. They are responsible for allocating proportionate carbon and bill saving targets to the obligated suppliers. They also carry out audits and ensure measures reported are compliant with the ECO rules.

Cavity wall insulation providers may receive funding from ECO-covered energy suppliers, where they have a commercial contract with them to install insulation. BEIS does not collect information on the companies with whom energy suppliers contract, but the work done must adhere to agreed industry standards as set out in the Publically Available Specification (PAS2030). The installation of cavity wall insulation is within the scope of the Each Home Counts Review, an independent review being carried out by Dr Peter Bonfield on consumer advice, protection, standards and enforcement for home energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in the UK. The Review is expected to be published soon.

ECO-covered suppliers determine what is cost-effective to deliver, balancing upfront costs compared to lifetime carbon or fuel cost savings achieved. The measures delivered, suppliers’ progress towards their ECO targets and the costs they incur under ECO are collected by BEIS (and published in the department’s Household Energy Efficiency National Statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics-headline-release-november-2016 (Table 2.8)), allowing the department to measure the cost effectiveness of the scheme over time.