Botched government insulation scheme leaves Portsmouth 91-year-old living in mould-riddled home

In 2005, then 77-year-old widowed Pat was told she qualified for a Warm Front grant, part of a government scheme to reduce fuel poverty.

A burgeoning number of companies sprang up to take commercial advantage of the government initiative, some offering grant access advice, others to exploit the opportunities for heating and insulation services.

The grants were aimed at households on limited income to provide a range of heating and insulation upgrades to help slash the cost of keeping them warm in winter. People on council tax and pension credits were eligible to apply.

An assessor called on Pat at her semi-detached home in North End and confirmed she was in line for replacement central heating, loft and cavity wall insulation.

They put her in touch with contractors to carry out the work, took their commission, but ducked responsibility for weeding out any cowboy firms.

When she spoke to the family about it for reassurance, they all backed the heating improvements and loft insulation, but advised her to steer clear of cavity wall insulation because they’d heard it could lead to damp problems.

However Pat, now 91 and a housebound asthmatic, subsequently found herself exposed to the hard sell by an insulation contractor anxious to get a slice of government money for carrying out the work.

Her daughter-in-law Sara recalled because it was a government initiative she thought it must be right so she went ahead with it.

She said: ‘At the time she was of an age where she was quite trusting of people who came to see her, and sadly has been caught out by it to her detriment.

‘She’d no argument with the central heating people, or the loft insulation contractor, but we can’t trace the cavity wall insulation people, and that’s the one she’s having problems with.

‘She first started to notice signs of damp problems in one of the corners of her middle room a couple of years after it was installed.

‘The front room has been awful for a long time, but then the last six months the middle room, the room she tends to spend all her time in, has got so bad it’s covered with mould marks. It’s destroyed the fabric of the house.

‘The curtains are damp, the carpets are rotting, the rooms smell musty - it’s very unhealthy.

‘The grant has spoiled her home not enhanced it. The whole house looks awful, and she has to live in it all day. She’s a housebound old lady and it’s all she’s got to look at, and in no position to have it put right.’

‘I do hope you can help, we’re very much at our wits’ end.’

When Streetwise got back to Sara, we had to confess it was by far one of the worst cavity wall insulation stories to cross our desk for many months.

Previous reader issues had revealed a shocking level of government complacency about complaints concerning the lack of adequate safeguards for vulnerable people against dodgy or incompetent installers.

A Streetwise investigation found many traders just set up under limited company status to get a slice of the government money, and then before they had to file accounts to Companies House, promptly went into liquidation.

Sanction-free guidelines required them to survey properties prior to carrying out any cavity wall insulation and provide homeowners with a written report about suitability, but rapidly turned into cold comfort when they were routinely ignored just to get the work.

Unscrupulous contractors simply arranged for the property owner to be issued with a 25-year guarantee by the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA), a predominant not-for-profit company specialising in insulated residential properties. The guarantee only covered the installation, not any consequential redecorating costs if it had been wrongly insulated.

Many properties were not suitable for cavity wall insulation because of their exposed location or poorly maintained outer brickwork.

Consumer watchdog Which? went undercover to investigate the quality of insulation suitability inspections and confirmed it wasn’t always possible to rely on them to warn of potential damp problems.

Our localities were listed as being in the areas worst exposed to wind and rain. Inappropriately filling the cavity with insulation material simply facilitated the transfer of rainwater from the outer wall leaf to the inner walls leading to excessive damp penetration.

The National Audit Office who scrutinise government spending on behalf of Parliament, were also critical of Warm Front scheme for inefficient targeting of resources. Many contractors were charging for their services at the high end of the spectrum, leaving applicants struggling to contribute towards the cost of the work.

We warned Sara that Pat’s options were limited after the scheme was abruptly labelled by ministers as inefficient and discontinued in 2013. Alternative initiatives based on energy-saving improvement loans administered by gas and electricity providers and discounted energy bills were substituted.

We directed her to CIGA to arrange for the insulation to be removed free of charge from Pat’s home so that it could dry out and be redecorated.

However, CIGA wanted first to establish whether they were obliged to carry out the work under the guarantee, and Sara was asked to prove Pat’s property was still in her name via the land registry and asked for £45 to facilitate a search of their records.

If they couldn’t trace the installer, it would be down to Pat struggling to survive on state benefits to pay for its removal.

Ultimately it’s the role of Parliament to hold minsters to account for their policies, but it couldn’t be more evident they’d failed to provide the necessary degree of protective scrutiny when the Warm Front scheme was introduced, and they’ve subsequently refused to pick up the remedial tab for vulnerable people like Pat.

Sara said: ‘Because the work was done so long ago, we’ve not been able to track down the installer and she can’t remember who it was.

‘Pat is a very old lady and cannot do these things for herself. We’d like to thank you for your advice and help, and we’ll certainly let you know how we get on.’