Pollard presses for water efficiency in £2bn green home scheme

Shadow environment secretary, Luke Pollard, last week pressed the government to fund water efficiency measures as part of its £2bn Green Home Grant Scheme to boost home energy efficiency in 2020-21, announced by the chancellor as part of the Plan for Jobs.

Pollard (pictured) asked the business secretary in a written question why water efficiency had been left out. Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said detail on the range of measures will be announced shortly, but indicated this would be confined to advancing energy efficiency. He said: “The funding will be spent on paying for accredited tradespeople to install a range of measures, for example insulation, to improve the energy performance of their homes.”

Pollard also pressed the environment secretary on whether the merits of funding water efficiency measures in the green scheme had been discussed prior to the announcement. Water minister, Rebecca Pow, said there had been no such discussions.