Government responds in written statement to CMA consumer protection review

The Government responded on 21 February 2024 to the Competition and Markets Authority's consumer protection review of the green heating and insulation sectors, in a written statement to Parliament. The CMA published an update on the standards landscape the same day, and a Commons debate on cavity wall insulation under government grants was held on the same date¹.

The CMA's update said standards bodies had engaged positively with its principles but that more remained to be done. The Government's statement accepted the findings on both consumer experience and standards¹.

"The Government acknowledges the findings on consumer experience, where some consumers may face difficulties when carrying out retrofit work, and on standards, where the landscape offering protections for consumers can be seen as complex and confusing to navigate."

In the Commons debate that day, the Government acknowledged there had been poorly executed cavity wall insulation installations and said it was fully committed to protecting all consumers with insulation products in their homes, and to improving the consumer journey regardless of housing tenure or how installation work is funded¹.

The statement summarised the actions being taken to protect consumers undertaking home retrofit work.

Cavity wall insulation is installed under supplier-led schemes across Great Britain, the Energy Company Obligation and the Great British Insulation Scheme, and under grant schemes in England: the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery scheme, launched in August 2020 with the aim of upgrading 50,000 low-income households, Home Upgrade Grants and the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund¹.

Measures installed under ECO since 1 January 2020, GBIS, HUG and LAD are covered by TrustMark or similar certification bodies. That requires installers to provide insurance against the tradesperson going out of business, a minimum two-year warranty for work, and a minimum 25-year guarantee for certain measures installed under ECO¹.

Source: House of Commons Library, citing DESNZ statistics¹.

There is no government compensation scheme for problems with cavity wall insulation. Householders with problems are advised to approach the original installer first, then check for a guarantee, such as one from the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency, which provides 25-year guarantees for work by its registered installers and has a published complaints procedure. The Government published guidance in 2019 for householders who suspect faulty installation¹.

Why it matters for households

Insulation is one of the few home energy measures that reduces demand rather than shifting it, so the quality of installation and the route to redress when it goes wrong bear directly on a household's energy independence. The Government's own figures show 3.8 million homes in Great Britain with uninsulated cavity walls were thought to be easy to treat and a further 1.3 million hard to treat at the end of 2022, and the number of cavity wall insulations delivered under ECO fell from 316,400 in 2014 to 11,100 in 2023¹.

The acknowledged complexity of the standards landscape matters because protections differ by scheme and by how the work was funded. TrustMark cover, warranty lengths and guarantee arrangements apply to measures under ECO since 2020, GBIS, HUG and LAD, while the Government states there is no compensation scheme for cavity wall insulation problems¹. Statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 sit alongside any guarantee¹.

What happens next

A Westminster Hall debate on the provision of cavity wall insulation under government grants was scheduled for 26 March¹. No further detail on the timing of the Government's actions to protect retrofit consumers is given in the sources.

Sources1 cited

1. Debate on provision of cavity wall insulation under government grants - House of Commons Library, commonslibrary.parliament.uk