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Green grants made more accessible

Changes have been made to the Government’s Green Homes Grant scheme to make it easier to find suitable installers.

Introduced last year, the Green Grant Scheme allows homeowners and landlords to apply for vouchers to cover part of the cost of energy saving measures such as installing low-carbon heating. Generally vouchers are available for up to half the cost of improvements costing up to £10,000.

Various conditions apply, including which installers may be used. Originally, installers were required to be TrustMark registered.

To qualify, improvements must be completed by 31 March 2022.

The Coronavirus Crisis has caused disruption and delays with work, but installers are allowed to work in people’s homes despite restrictions, although they must comply with COVID-19 Secure guidelines.

Even so, homeowners and landlords have found difficulty in finding TrustMark registered and PAS or MCS certified installers.

Revised installer terms and conditions have eased the requirement.

Installers must still be registered with the but are no longer required to be TrustMark registered and PAS or MCS certified. The changes apply to vouchers issued from 4 January.

The National Landlord Knowledges Association has welcomed the change.

‘Yesterday’s announcement is good news for landlords’, said NRLA deputy director of campaigns, Meera Chindooroy. ‘ We have had an incredible amount of interest from our members following the Green Homes Grant announcement. However, we heard from a large proportion of members who said they were having huge problems finding local installers with capacity to carry out the work and this was causing a backlog. We fed these case studies back to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to highlight our concerns.  

‘We welcome the news of these changes and encourage landlords to make use of this important initiative’.

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