Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 23
62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations
Published 23 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Faulty energy efficiency installations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We asked the witnesses whether they had analysed the guarantee policy wording to ensure they did not include excesses or complex issues that render them useless in practice, or had reviewed the balance sheets of the 39 Q 64 40 C&AG’s Report, para 16 41 Qq 59, 60 42 FEE023 43 Q 151 44 Q 58; C&AG’s Report, para 15 45 Letter from TrustMark, dated 25 November 2025 46 Q 82 47 Q 68 48 Letter from the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero, dated 2 December 2025 15 cover providers. TrustMark and the Department told us that TrustMark’s financial protection panel, which consists of external independent members, had initially reviewed all guarantees to ensure they were fit for purpose, and that TrustMark had also been looking at the policies again over the last 12 months to ensure the affected homes were covered.49 In written evidence provided after the oral evidence session, the Department explained that to invoke a guarantee where the installer is still trading but has failed to rectify the problem, consumers must first work through TrustMark’s dispute resolution process. This includes escalating the dispute to the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman (DRO). If the DRO rules in the consumer’s favour, and the installer still fails to rectify the problem, the guarantee provider will at that point step in to remediate the property, assuming the guarantee in question has a “failure to rectify” clause.50 We are concerned that these processes will take too long especially where there are serious defects causing health issues of the occupants.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 62nd Report - Faulty energy efficiency installations (HC 1229), 23 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 23 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, but disagrees with the recommendation to halt wall insulation installation without independent supervision and with the recommendation to refer fraud to the Serious Fraud Office.
- On wall insulation, it disagrees with the recommendation, noting that every household with external wall insulation under ECO4 and GBIS "is being and will be offered an on-site audit", subject to the householder accepting; internal wall insulation concerns are triaged and referred for audit where they meet "the threshold of risk factors".
- It agrees on the find-and-fix programme: TrustMark "currently intend" it to complete by May 2027, though the department states it is "unlikely" to deliver on a "significantly shorter timescale". It will update the Committee in writing every six months, first in June 2026.
- It disagrees with referring fraud across ECO to the Serious Fraud Office, stating that this "relates to an existing ongoing responsibility of the regulator", Ofgem, which can and does make referrals where appropriate.
- It agrees to publish an annual report to Parliament on retrofit schemes, with the first publication "before Autumn 2027", and "intends to consult" on the design of a reformed consumer protection system during summer 2026.