Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 37
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)
Written evidence from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, AgilityEco and the Green Homes Group told us how the failures with ECO are undermining public confidence in retrofits, potentially with negative impacts on our ability to reduce both fuel poverty and carbon emissions.88 The Department told us it is “tightening up” the current system, and that it expects this to help rebuild the public’s confidence in the ECO schemes and wider retrofits.89 It told us, for example: • As of March 2025, it is a requirement for retrofit coordinators, who manage the design and installation of the measures, to physically visit each project site to help ensure the design is appropriate for the specific property.90 83 C&AG’s Report, para 4.12 84 FEE0019 85 Q 131 86 FEE0023 87 Q 132 88 FEE0014, FEE0015, FEE0016, FEE0023 89 Qq 97, 99, 100 90 Q 99 22 • Organisations across the system are working together to share information and collectively make more informed decisions.91 • TrustMark and the certification bodies suspended 38 installer businesses, representing 81% of the external wall insulation market. As of November 2025, 22 installers had been fully reinstated after meeting requirements on TrustMark’s “robust six-point plan”, including full remediation of the problems identified.92
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.