Home insulation funding halved

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The flagship Government scheme for making homes energy efficient is being cut almost in half from April.

Applicants are being warned they may wait six months or more to get the work done as funding falls from £369 million this year to £195 million next.

Energy Minister David Kidney told the BBC he had asked for more money from the Chancellor.

He defended the scheme saying it had helped two million vulnerable people since it began in 2000.

Speaking on Radio 4's Money Box programme Mr Kidney said,

"Warm Front has delivered energy efficient measures to more than two million vulnerable households since it was set up in 2000. The present three year funding programme is the most we have ever spent, just short of £1 billion.

Those who have applied will see waiting times increase significantly and those who apply in future will be declined Derek Lickorish, Fuel Poverty Advisory Group

"Such has been the demand and the need to create jobs in the recession that we have brought forward spending, leaving us looking thin in the final year."

The result is that the £369 million spent in 2009/10 will fall by almost half to £195 million in 2010/11.

Derek Lickorish, chairman of the Government's Fuel Poverty Advisory Group told Money Box that would mean far less could be done,

"Instead of the 215,000 households assisted in this financial year it will be down to around 90,000 in the next. Those who have applied will see waiting times increase significantly and those who apply in future will be declined."

EAGA, which manages the scheme in England, has written to applicants recently warning that the time taken for each home will rise from the current 50 days to around six months.

Derek Lickorish has written twice to the Chancellor Alistair Darling asking for more money to restore the funding next year and find "significantly more than we have today".

More money

And in a surprise admission Minister David Kidney said he had been lobbying Alistair Darling to provide more money when he reveals his plans in the pre-Budget report on 9 December.

"All Ministers are part of the government and I will stand by the Chancellor's decision. But I've been fighting for Warm Front"

And in response to the question 'So you've been asking for more money?' he replied "Of course I have."

Warm Front provides a grant up to £3500 (£6000 in some cases) for insulation and modernising heating systems. People over 60 and families with children under 16 can apply if they are on means-tested benefits as can some on disablement benefits.

Different schemes apply in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and they do not have similar budgetary problems.

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