Recommendation 8

Despite spending a fraction of what was intended on vouchers, the Department expects it will incur costs of £50.5 million in administering the Scheme, equating to about £1,000 for every home it will upgrade.19 The Department stated that this was a result of having to address the failings of the Scheme Administrator, and that these costs should instead be compared to the 169,000 voucher applications as the Department incurred costs on each of these due to the administrator’s failure to automate processing. This is 9 C&AG’s report para 8, Qq 29, 33 10 C&AG’s report, Figure 5 11 C&AG’s report, paras 8 and 2.11 12 Q64 13 Q88 14 Q64 15 MCS Certified and MCS Foundation, page 4 16 Q52, MCS Certified and MCS Foundation page 6 17 Qq 29, 41 18 Q63 19 Q147 Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme 11 despite also stating that it had secured a reduction in the Scheme administrator’s fee due to their underperformance.20 These costs would have been more proportionate had the Scheme not been so difficult for homeowners to engage with; the Scheme’s 52% attrition rate of failed applications compares unfavourably to the Department’s initial expected attrition rate of 40% based on previous schemes, which we note also faced problems due to over-complexity.21 Had the Department created a scheme that was more accessible, there would have been a greater number of homes upgraded for the resources committed.22 Impact on Industry