Insulating Your Home: How To Beat The Scammers

Energy bills are on the rise again, with the energy price cap from January 1 to March 31 2026 being set at £1,758 per year for a typical household.

So people are looking for ways to save money on their energy bills, and for some, grants offering energy-efficient home improvements, seemed like a lifeline. But as ITV’s Tonight programme reveals, for many it’s turned into a nightmare. The programme found homeowners left with damp, leaks and mould in their properties following work being carried out.

Charlotte Hawkins has been investigating how people can have confidence in who to trust when it comes to getting green home improvements.

There have been a number of different government-backed schemes that householders, if they are receiving certain benefits or have a particularly inefficient home, can apply to have green home improvement such as heat pumps, insulation and solar panels installed. These schemes are funded through householders’ energy bills.

Tonight spoke to someone who qualified – Steve, a retired builder who was spurred into thinking about upgrading his house after suffering health problems. In 2024, interior insulation, a heat pump, a new water tank and solar panels were fitted to his home. But he was left with heating problems, and discovered that the new water tank was leaking. The company who carried out the work has since apologised, and offered to rectify any outstanding defects.

In Telford, a company named Skilled Mapping is using thermal images to assess how effective insulation schemes have been. CEO Alex Wrigglesworth has scanned over half a million homes across the UK that have had different types of insulation retrofitted. He told Tonight:

“Pretty much every house that is retrofitted with cavity wall insulation that we’ve thermal imaged we see near total failure rates.”

In October, the National Audit Office estimated 98 percent of all external wall insulation fitted under one of the government-backed initiatives, ECO4, has been found to be faulty – affecting tens of thousands of homes. In last week’s budget, the government announced they were scrapping the scheme.

Tonight also looked into ‘energy-saving plugs’ that claim to save people huge amounts of money on their electricity bills. Consumer insight company Which? tested the plugs, finding no evidence that they could cut bills, and that they also failed to meet basic electrical safety standards.

HELP AND ADVICE

If you are concerned about work done under the ECO schemes The Ofgem ECO helpline can be contacted at 0808 169 4447 or alternatively email ECOhelp@ofgem.gov.uk
Advice about spray foam can be found on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors website www.rics.org
To report a scam visit Action Fraud https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/