Row over insulation funding

TheGovernmenthascome under fire over hundreds of millions of pounds being withdrawn from a scheme to help householders make their homes more energy efficient.

The £2bn green homes grant scheme includes a £1.5bn voucher offer to help people install insulation and other measures to make their homes warmer and keep fuel bills down.

Launchedf in September, just £73.1m worth of vouchers had been issued by late January – with reports of delays to applications and payments to tradesmen.

Quizzed on whether unspent money from the scheme would be rolled over from the end of March into the next year – as the programme had been extended until March 2022 - the Government said it was only for use in this year.