WESTMINSTER must compensate people who lost thousands in a mis-selling scandal linked to its Green Deal scheme, Scots MPs say.

Thousands of people were sold panels and loans by Home Energy Lifestyle and Management Systems (HELMS) as part of the London-led initiative.

More than 4260 across the UK – including 3050 in Scotland – have HELMS Green Deal finance for solar panels that were supposed to cut their power bills, but ended up costing them instead.

Instead of receiving government subsidies for producing power, those affected saw those payments directed away from their accounts as a result of terms agreed with HELMS.

The Cambuslang firm went bust in 2016 and its major shareholder Robert Skillen has denied wrongdoing.

However, Citizens Advice Scotland has accused HELMS of involvement in "pressure selling, providing misleading information about repayment, returns on investment, and financing, and selling to people in vulnerable situation".

Some customers claim they were subject to hard-sell tactics and some pensioners entered into 25-year finance deals.

Some customers say bungled installations have invalidated their insurance and loans made against their homes have rendered those properties unsellable.

Launching a private members bill to force an official review over the "cowboy" work today, Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP Alan Brown, a qualified civil engineer, said the UK Government must pay out.

He said: "This is a private members bill that shouldn’t be required.

"It is a consequence of a government backed scheme failing.

"Had the Government actually taken the responsibility to investigate and compensate victims then this bill would be redundant. But to date, the UK Government has turned a deaf ear to these calls."

Backed by Scots MPs including SNP colleagues Gavin Newlands, Philippa Whitford and David Linden, as well as Labour's Ged Killen, the bill is also supported by Ben Lake of Plaid Cymru.

Slamming Skillen – who in November offered his entire £10 million fortune if anyone can prove wrongdoing on his part – Brown accused him of "brazenly ... telling everybody it was nothing to do with him".

He went on: "If nothing else, a proper review will also flush out Skillen’s claims that he warned BEIS [the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] of the flaws in the system – an audacious claim because if he is telling the truth, then he still didn’t care about the flaws and continued to make money, or it's just further bluster."

Skillen says he warned the Government its scheme was flawed and savings figures suggested to customers were "unrealistic".

Brown told the House of Commons: "It is vital to find this out, and also to find ways to prevent Skillen from continuing to profit from these fraudulent transfers. It is indisputable that people did not realise they were assigning their tariffs over to his other company. And worse, many claim their signatures have been forged. The UK Government needs to get a handle on the scale of this fraud and ensure victims get ownership of the tariffs.

"While the Government might argue there is an appeal process in place at the moment, it is inadequate."

The bill will return for its second reading on March 8.