Cavity wall insulations crash by 97% following green deal introduction (UK) [View all]

[NickB79]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/29/cavity-wall-insulations-crash-green-deal

The number of homes installing cavity wall insulation has crashed by 97% since the government's flagship energy–efficiency scheme was introduced, new figures have revealed.

Previous energy-efficiency schemes meant cavity wall insulation – one of the cheapest ways of cutting energy bills and climate-warming carbon emissions – was heavily subsidised or free. But under the green deal, which aims to upgrade the efficiency of 14m homes, households have to take out a loan to pay for the measure.

A failure to deliver significant energy-efficiency savings puts in danger the pledge by ministers that soaring energy bills, due to rising gas prices and support for low-carbon energy, can be curbed by cutting energy use. It will also endanger the UK's legally binding carbon targets.

Figures collected by the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency, which monitors the issue of installations and guarantees, and seen by Building magazine, show that only 1,138 installations were completed in April, down from 49,650 in April 2012. The government's own impact assessment predicted in January 2012 that cavity wall insulations would collapse by 67%, but the reality has far outstripped this estimate. Government data shows that 1.4m cavity wall insulations are needed to meet its carbon targets.

Oops doesn't seem to cut it here.