Election limbo leaves pensioners' homes full of holes

Home Energy UK, based in Livingston, said funding for the second phase of the energy-saving programme had been put on hold until after May 7, as it was unclear who would win the election and what their energy efficiency plans might be.

The problem was uncovered after pensioners in Lanarkshire were left with no cavity wall insulation for five weeks after Home Energy UK removed the old material and left their homes covered in holes, looking like “something out of Beirut”, after failing to return to finish the job.

After weeks of calls to the energy company, the frustrated elderly residents approached Airdrie SNP councillor Michael Coyle for help as they feared their homes would be left with no insulation at all.

Coyle was shocked when he contacted the firm, which told him nothing would be done until after the election because none of the big energy companies like British Gas and EON were signing any contracts under the Coalition’s Energy Company Obligation(ECO) scheme until they found out who would be in power and what their plans were going to be.

They told him they were struggling to get suppliers to hand over the carbon materials for the cavity wall insulation because of the election. Coyle insisted the firm also told him there were at least another 18 people in the same situation waiting for insulation jobs to be finished.

He was contacted by Charlie and Margaret Johnston and their neighbour Mary Henry because they did not know where to turn for help.

Coyle said: “I was taken aback when I called up the company and was told that these jobs had been put on hold because of the election. We are talking about vulnerable pensioners here. They started doing the insulation job on their houses but didn’t come back to finish the job. They left their houses without any insulation at all and with gaping holes in their walls, which is unacceptable.

“When these pensioners came to me they said they had been trying to get it resolved for weeks. Charlie said his house was freezing and he had just had a quadruple heart bypass operation. How long would it have taken if I hadn’t stepped in?”

Within 24 hours of Coyle contacting the firm, it got in touch with the residents to tell them it now planned to return to finish the work on May 6.

He said: “They had no funding to finish the job but after I called up to complain they suddenly found money to finish it. I had to take up their case. I think the firm started to panic when I got involved but I’m just glad it’s getting resolved. They said there was another 18 clients in the same position. Who knows how many more pensioners in the whole of Scotland who are in the same boat with other companies. This cannot be an isolated case.”

Mary said the past five weeks had been a nightmare and her home had been left looking “like a war zone”.

She added: “Thanks to Councillor Coyle they say they are now coming to finish the work. I hope to God nothing goes wrong because this has been horrendous. They never came back to finish the job after removing the old insulation on March 17 and I have been chasing them up.

“Everybody has been commenting on the state of my house. It looks like the Battle of The Alamo with bullet holes all over the house. It is horrendous looking.”

Neighbours Charlie, 72, and his wife Margaret, 70, said their 98-year-old house had been left looking like “Beirut” with numerous gaping holes up to four inches wide left on the outside of his house.

Charlie added: “After Councillor Coyle got involved they called us to say they would be here on May 6 to complete the job. They shouldn’t have taken out the old insulation unless they had the materials to finish the job and put it back in again and render the house back to the way it should be.

“It has been a nightmare. Just after the extraction, a cold snap came in and the house was freezing. We had to keep the heating on all day and night.”

Julie Kerr, administration manager at Home Energy UK, insisted everything was “higgledy-piggledy” because of the election but said she had “managed to secure a little pot of funding” to get the pensioners’ home finished after Coyle’s call.

She said she was struggling to get carbon for the cavity wall insulation.

Kerr added: “The last contract was ECO.1 and it has now moved to ECO.2. We won’t find out until the second week in May as to how much the ECO.2 funding is going to be and who is going to be issuing it out. Funding has been put on hold and everything has gone quiet now that ECO.1 is finished.

We are now preparing for ECO.2. Because of the election everything is a bit higgledy-piggledy. We don’t know whether they will keep the money on ECO.2 or some of them might want to freeze tariff ratings and things like that, so it would reduce the ECO.2 funding.

“There is going to be ECO.2 funding but nobody is signing any new contracts until after the election and once we know what is happening we can get the work done. While it is quiet we have been doing all the surveys and getting everything ready to go after the election. The whole insulation industry has gone quiet because everybody is waiting on this. It is frustrating because we have work there, installers and surveyors all there ready to go and there won’t be any work for at least another two weeks. Our last submission was three weeks ago. So in total that will be about five weeks where we haven’t been able to do any installation work.”

Citizens Advice Scotland said “it would be a tragedy to see politics stopping people from keeping their homes warm and saving money”.

Andrew Warden, policy officer at Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “We would urge both the Scottish and UK governments to plan and invest for the long term, regardless of who is in power.”

Energy watchdogs Ofgem said customers who were having problems getting existing firms to finish the work could contact another installer. Any residents having problems can contact the Home Energy Scotland helpline on 0808 808 2282.