Recommendations & Conclusions
9 items
3
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
Households do not have real assurance the government will protect them from unaffordable bills when the original installer or guarantees do not cover the cost of repairs. Ministers have stated that no household should have to pay to fix the issues. The original installer is liable for fixing the installation …
Government response. The government accepted the recommendation, stating that it provided responses to the Committee's three requests via a letter on 6 February 2026.
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The Department’s senior officials took two years to recognise the scale of the problems, which led to many faulty installations that could have been avoided. This is unacceptable and demonstrates very poor overall supervision. The Department acted in October 2024 when TrustMark informed it of analysis indicating high levels of …
Government response. The government accepted the recommendation, stating that risk management and escalation within DESNZ are managed through formal governance. In response to issues, they have established an internal programme board, an external expert panel, and a project board for the find-and-fix …
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The Department’s system of quality assurance and consumer protection was far too complicated, and organisations within it focused too much on their own tasks rather than whether the system was protecting consumers. The ECO schemes and the retrofit quality assurance and consumer protection system combine to make a system that …
Government response. The government accepted the recommendation, committing to publishing an annual report to Parliament on retrofit schemes, non-compliance, and estimated fraud before Autumn 2027, to be included in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts. It will also establish a standard methodology …
HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The serious failings to protect consumers on these schemes risk undermining confidence in all the Department’s retrofit schemes. The Department believes it is rebuilding confidence through the steps it has taken to date, such as suspending 38 installer businesses, implementing a “robust” reinstatement process, and requiring retrofit coordinators to visit …
Government response. The government accepted the recommendation, affirming high priority for the find-and-fix programme and committing to wholesale reform of the consumer protection system as outlined in the Warm Homes Plan, including developing new competency frameworks.
HM Treasury
25
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The Department told us that the Ministers are very clear these problems must be fixed at no cost to households who have done nothing wrong. It told us it expects only a “very small number” of homes to not be remediated by the original installer or covered by the guarantee. …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to step in and ensure defects are remediated where all other avenues have been exhausted, even though the scheme has closed.
HM Treasury
27
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The National Audit Office reported that the Department designed both ECO and the consumer protection and quality assurance system to operate at arm’s length from government, and that the Department gave itself limited oversight and influence of ECO4 and GBIS. It concluded that the Department and Ofgem took quick action …
Government response. The government will publish an annual report to Parliament on its retrofit schemes, their level of non-compliance and estimated fraud, and whether the schemes are working as intended, starting before Autumn 2027. This will be included in the department's Annual …
HM Treasury
28
Conclusion
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The National Audit Office reported that TrustMark only developed the analytical capabilities for identifying non-compliance trends in the latter half of 2024. Its funding model meant it did not have the free cashflow to develop these capabilities sooner.60 However, TrustMark told us it had been sharing the results of its …
Government response. The government agreed with the Committee’s recommendation. TrustMark reached full operational delivery of the find-and-fix programme in late January 2026 and currently intend for the programme to complete by May 2027 in line with ECO4 closure timeframes.
HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
Since November 2022, the Department’s programme risk register had included risks to quality, assessments and standards, yet the Department did not take sufficient action to check whether the risks were materialising, to prevent them from happening, or to escalate the risks appropriately. In November 2022, the Department recorded a risk …
Government response. The government states that risk management and escalation is already managed through formal governance across projects, schemes and portfolios, with risks escalated as appropriate. The department is committed to reform of our consumer protection system and has set up both …
HM Treasury
30
Recommendation
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency …
Accepted
The National Audit Office’s report considered by the Committee concluded that ECO4 and GBIS combined with the consumer protection and quality assurance system resulted in an overly complex system, with many different actors. It reported that nobody spoken to during its investigation could give a comprehensive explanation of how the …
Government response. The Department will publish an annual report to Parliament on retrofit schemes, with the first publication before Autumn 2027. This will be included in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts.
HM Treasury