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Tonight - Season 2025 Episode 27 -
Insulating Your Home: How To Beat the Scammers
Insulating Your Home: How To Beat the Scammers
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00:00Tonight, botched home insulation.
00:03Oh, we were horrified to suddenly be confronted, you know, with a significant problem.
00:07Can't be awake at night.
00:09Who is footing the bill?
00:11The government eco schemes are funded by the energy companies, so it's our energy bills that are paying for this.
00:17Who do you trust to get work done on your house?
00:20I think it is a scandal. In some cases, people are worse off than before they started, so that's incredibly disappointing.
00:27And the home energy scams to avoid.
00:31So these parts here, they could potentially cause a house fire because the wiring in there is so dangerous.
00:36Good evening and welcome to the Tonight programme.
00:39Energy bills are on the rise again, and with the cost of living, people are looking for ways to save money.
00:46So, for some, the government's green energy grants offering insulation seemed like a lifeline.
00:52But for many, they've turned into a nightmare.
00:54So, how do you know who to trust when it comes to getting work carried out at home?
00:59Charlotte Hawkins has been finding out.
01:01For the past two decades, successive governments have been keen for us all to embrace green home improvements,
01:27such as insulation and solar panels, to be eco-friendly, but also to lower our bills.
01:34Ultimately, this is about people living in warmer homes, paying lower bills, and having more control over their own lives and their own comfort.
01:43In South Wales, Cathy thought she was doing the right thing when she got spray foam loft insulation back in 2018.
01:51She paid £3,500 to have it installed.
01:55I think there was a general awareness about climate change and the need to reduce emissions.
02:02We did our research into the company that we used.
02:05They had good reviews.
02:06Their paperwork seemed to be pretty comprehensive.
02:08At first, Cathy was happy with how the job had been carried out.
02:14We used a firm called Home Logic UK, and they seemed very professional.
02:19And we didn't really sort of think too much more about it until a couple of years ago, when it became apparent that this spray foam was beginning to cause issues.
02:28Despite being offered on government schemes, warnings about incorrectly installed spray foam began to emerge.
02:38250,000 people were affected. Will she give justice to them too?
02:43After seeing news coverage, Cathy was worried about her insulation, so she got an independent surveyor to check the work.
02:51They told her it had been fitted incorrectly.
02:53Oh, we were horrified. You know, this has been our home. Best on 40 years. We've been very happy here.
03:00And to suddenly be confronted, you know, with a significant problem, you know, was a worry. Can't be awake at night.
03:08Seven years on from having the insulation fitted, she appealed to Home Logic UK, the company who fitted the insulation.
03:15They sent someone to inspect the work and claimed the spray foam was fitted as per product specifications and refused to remove it.
03:25Home Logic UK have not responded to our complaint in any substantive way at all.
03:32Here is where cables have been encapsulated.
03:34Cathy couldn't go to court because the time limit for legal action had passed and because she paid on her debit card and the work was done over six years ago, consumer protection wasn't available.
03:46I think we're having to sort of accept that there is just no redress available to us.
03:51Cathy first complained to Home Logic in July, but since filming began, they have announced they've ceased trading as of the 7th of November 2025.
04:00There's lots and lots of cowboys doing this type of work and that has to stop.
04:05And I think the government needs to step in and regulate the sector.
04:08There needs to be far more oversight and regulation.
04:12These companies open and close overnight and, you know, you can go through small claims, but it can be very, very difficult.
04:19So there's very little recourse for people who've had spray foam installed incorrectly.
04:23The company that's taken over Home Logic's warranties since its closure told tonight they are looking into Cathy's case.
04:32The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told us...
04:37We are working with a range of stakeholders to address the problems with spray foam, resolve accessibility of financial products, strengthen enforcement against rogue traders, and we're exploring options to support people with substandard work.
04:50We'll catch up with Cathy again later in the programme.
04:56But unlike her, not everyone has to pay for green home improvements.
05:01There are a number of different government schemes that homeowners can apply for.
05:06To qualify, you need to be receiving certain benefits or have a particularly inefficient home.
05:12However, these green deals are funded by us through our energy bills.
05:16Each household pays around £140 from electricity and £50 from gas each year.
05:24The government eco schemes are funded by the profits of the energy companies, so it's our energy bills that are paying for this.
05:32So are people aware that money for government-backed green home improvements is coming out of their energy bills?
05:39I didn't know that my bills might be used to help other people. I wasn't aware of that, no.
05:45I knew quite a lot of the money went to green energy, improving that, but not people's homes and things like that.
05:53No, I definitely didn't know that at all.
05:55At the end of the day, there is a big social divide, a big pay divide, and I think everyone deserves to be able to live comfortably.
06:01Someone who qualified for one of these government schemes is Steve, a retired builder who's lived in his four-bedroom cottage for nearly 30 years.
06:12Health problems spurred him into thinking about upgrading his house.
06:16I've had a few health issues back in 2016, stage four on Hodgkinson's mantle cell lymphoma.
06:24Still ongoing, it's incurable, but knowing that there's the chance that something may happen, I thought I would get the house in order so I could leave it to the kids.
06:36Steve saw an advert online saying he could get energy-saving home improvements for free and was understandably interested.
06:44He filled out a form and a representative got in touch saying he qualified because his family received certain benefits.
06:51We got the company involved, they came in, really pushed to start the job, and I was having treatment, really insistent, it's got to be now.
07:03So I reluctantly agreed, let them in the house while I wasn't here, and World War III started.
07:11In 2024, Steve had interior insulation, a heat pump, new water tank and solar panels fitted to his home.
07:19It could have cost him up to £30,000 if he was a paying customer.
07:24The scheme works, as the big energy companies pay contractors to carry out the work.
07:29But Steve doesn't think the contractors did the work correctly.
07:33They've not put the skirtings back on.
07:35We've got electric cables coming through the wall, and they've left it like this.
07:39Crucially, he was left with heating problems, which meant he and his daughter had to choose between showering and heating their home.
07:50He also discovered the new water tank was leaking.
07:54It was just running, and it flooded all under this floor.
07:57It's just all delaminated, it's all falling apart.
07:59It's just like a bonsai.
08:00It's absolutely disgusting.
08:01As the work was done under the government-backed Eco4 scheme, Steve complained to Trustmark.
08:10This is the government-endorsed organisation that is meant to verify the credentials of tradespeople,
08:15and is responsible for overseeing the quality of work on these schemes.
08:20They sent somebody out who seemed very shocked at the quality of workmanship.
08:26They said, but it's not my job to look at the quality of workmanship. It's got to work.
08:31Trustmark identified a number of faults with the insulation and heating system,
08:36and instructed the contractors to fix these issues.
08:39The company has fixed elements of the work and offered some compensation,
08:44but Steve disputed the amount they offered, and the contractors retracted their offer.
08:50The company has agreed to fix the technical faults Trustmark identified,
08:54but they dispute many of Steve's complaints,
08:57including the finish of the plastering and the damage he says they caused.
09:02Like many people who have had problems with Eco4 work,
09:06he is unsure about having the original contractors back in his home.
09:11And after trying Trustmark, he now doesn't know what to do.
09:15I've just not had energy to do anything. I've just been too ill.
09:19It's more than most people can endure.
09:22Trustmark clearly didn't provide enough oversight for this scheme.
09:29Part of the problem of the scheme as a whole
09:31is there needs to be a much better understanding of the customer experience,
09:35a much better understanding of who they can turn to
09:37and which bodies they can turn to.
09:41Back in 2021, Tonight reported on botched insulation
09:45under the government-backed Eco scheme in Carmarthenshire.
09:48Monday 30th November. Again, water is pouring in.
09:54Linda had had external wall insulation fitted incorrectly,
09:58but couldn't afford to get the damage fixed or take the contractors to court.
10:03Since broadcast, there has been no form of redress for Linda and many like her.
10:08A recent National Audit Office report found that issues with the lack of oversight from Trustmark
10:14contributed to huge problems with Eco4
10:17and another government-backed initiative, the Great British Insulation Scheme.
10:23An estimated 98% of all external wall insulation fitted under Eco4
10:28has been found to be faulty, affecting tens of thousands of homes
10:33and potentially leaving them with nowhere to turn.
10:36For this particular type of insulation, I think it is a scandal.
10:40In some cases, people are worse off than before they started.
10:44So that's incredibly disappointing.
10:45That's incredibly upsetting for those households.
10:47So this is something that does require urgent action.
10:51The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said...
10:54We inherited a flawed system from the previous government
10:58and have taken decisive action to ensure poor installations of solid wall insulation
11:03are fixed at no cost to the consumer.
11:06We are introducing comprehensive reforms to make this process clear and straightforward,
11:11so problems are fixed quickly.
11:12With so many people affected, charities are now stepping in to help.
11:19Jonathan Bean is policy advisor for the charity Fuel Poverty Action.
11:24He's been showing me examples of some of the worst affected homes.
11:28What you can see there is damp gets caught behind the insulation
11:31and it all needs to be ripped out.
11:33Some of the issues are immediately noticeable,
11:36that the work hasn't been carried out properly,
11:38but others people might not know about,
11:40they might not find out about for some time.
11:43That's right.
11:43It can take several years for the impact of bad insulation
11:47to actually impact your home.
11:49So the problem could be hidden.
11:50It's like a ticking time bomb in people's homes.
11:52And I know that in order to get the job signed off,
11:55the contractors need to have the paperwork done, don't they?
11:57Yeah.
11:58There's lots of paperwork,
11:59but no-one's checking if the information on those forms is actually correct.
12:04So, for example, we've had things like forged signatures.
12:07There's no-one at the other end going through it
12:09and checking that that correlates with the situation and reality.
12:12Trustmarks say they do desk research,
12:14but it's obviously very hard to check whether the paperwork matches reality
12:18sitting in a desk in an office somewhere.
12:21There's very little quality control
12:22because the government doesn't actually run the scheme directly.
12:25It puts the £4 billion on the table
12:27and lets private firms bid for that money.
12:30How has that been allowed to happen?
12:32There aren't enough skilled people in this country.
12:34The government hasn't invested in training of skilled people
12:36and it hasn't invested in the checking of surveyors of the work.
12:41So what we get as a result is a lot of subcontractors
12:44being brought in last minute to do a job,
12:47which is obviously very lucrative for these companies.
12:49Because of widespread problems,
12:53the government suspended the membership of 39 companies from Trustmark,
12:57stopping them from fitting any more external wall insulation under the schemes.
13:02However, according to Trustmark's website,
13:04there are currently only seven suspended.
13:07And it appears that some of them are still claiming to be part of the government scheme,
13:12carrying Trustmark and Eco4 branding on their websites.
13:16I wanted to put what we'd found to Trustmark,
13:19but they declined our request for an interview.
13:22They told us in a statement.
13:24We acted decisively when problems with Eco4
13:27and the Great British Insulation Scheme were identified.
13:31The poor workmanship is completely unacceptable,
13:33so we've been working to fix the problems.
13:36We are improving systems to spot problems earlier,
13:39but we fully accept more needs to be done.
13:41Consumer protection schemes have worked reasonably well,
13:44but reform is needed.
13:46In Telford, one company is using thermal images
13:51to assess how effective insulation schemes have been.
13:55When we see red,
13:56we see heat transfer coming from the inside of that property
13:59to the outside of the property.
14:01And for a homeowner, you're just paying to heat the street.
14:05Alex Rigglesworth, CEO at Skilled Mapping,
14:08has scanned over half a million homes across the UK
14:11that have had different types of insulation added after they were built.
14:16It's a term called retrofitting.
14:19And what he found has shocked him.
14:21Pretty much every house that is retrofitted with cavity wall insulation
14:25that we've thermal image, we see near total failure rates.
14:28We've been really surprised by the scale of retrofit failure,
14:32but also that nothing is being done,
14:35and no one seems to be monitoring retrofit at all.
14:38Alex also raises questions about how energy efficiency might change over time
14:43if the work isn't done correctly.
14:45One thing that our thermal imagery has shown
14:48is that degradation over time is happening on all of these schemes.
14:53So you might have a surveyor that assesses a retrofit after it's done,
14:57but over a year, they get damp and that fails.
15:01The serious failings identified with insulation
15:04may just be the tip of the iceberg with current schemes.
15:09Many people have also had air source heat pumps and solar panels installed,
15:14and the workmanship in some cases leaves a lot to be desired.
15:19Mick in South Wales dreamt of a peaceful retirement
15:22in a warm home in the Cambrian Mountains.
15:25We just fell in love with it.
15:27In the summer, it's lovely.
15:29In the winter, they tend to be very, very hard.
15:33Mick, like tens of thousands of people across the country,
15:36took advantage of one of the Eco4 grants.
15:39Because he is retired, he qualified to have insulation,
15:42solar panels and a heat pump fitted to his home for free.
15:47The normal cost of this could be up to £30,000.
15:52Work began in 2023, but since the insulation was fitted,
15:56mould has been growing behind his furniture.
15:59Every month, we have to wipe down the walls
16:01and clear the black off of the walls.
16:04It's just gone from bad to worse.
16:07On the exterior, it's starting to peel off in places.
16:10There's cracks forming where the joints are.
16:13We don't know whether there's water getting in,
16:15but we do certainly suffer with mould,
16:18which we never did before.
16:20Mick's also had serious issues with his heat pump.
16:23He says the one installed isn't big enough for the property
16:26and now can't heat his home.
16:29In the lounge where we are at the moment,
16:32it never reaches above 19 degrees.
16:34Personally, I'm not comfortable in my own home,
16:37which I've never had before.
16:39To get it up to a comfortable temperature,
16:41we have to have the log burner on,
16:42which is defeating the object of the exercise.
16:46Mick won't sign the paperwork to approve the job.
16:49Understandably, he wants the problem sorting
16:51before he puts pen to paper.
16:53This means, however,
16:55the contractor can't get paid under Eco4
16:58and has refused to carry out the work Mick wants doing,
17:01such as installing a larger heat pump.
17:04We're not happy.
17:06We're not warm.
17:07We're just surviving.
17:09And that's not what it should be.
17:10They took out a perfectly good system
17:12and put in a very bad system
17:14that is not up to what it should be.
17:17So what's the best advice for consumers
17:19who want to avoid ending up in a similar situation to Mick?
17:23The red flags I would look out for
17:25is if they're peddling one particular product,
17:28like spray foam, over regular insulation.
17:31If they've cold-called you out of the blue,
17:34if they're offering grants, compensation schemes,
17:37using really sort of strong tactics,
17:39like trying to get you to sign over within
17:41and get the work done within a couple of days.
17:45As we can see,
17:46there are all sorts of green energy pitfalls
17:49to look out for.
17:51And a lot of what scammers claim
17:52is almost always too good to be true.
17:56I've been looking into devices
17:57that claim to save you huge amounts of money
18:00on your electricity bills.
18:03So-called energy-saving plugs
18:05are freely available on online marketplaces,
18:08so I've been having a look.
18:10This saver can stabilise voltage,
18:12balance current,
18:13and provide guard,
18:14achieving energy-saving effects.
18:17That's quite something, isn't it?
18:18They're also advertising on social media platforms,
18:22and here, the claims are even more interesting.
18:25For many users,
18:26it's helped reduce electricity bills
18:28by up to 20% to 30%.
18:31There are some bold claims here
18:33at a time when people are really worried
18:35about their energy costs.
18:36I'd be interested to see
18:37whether any of these devices actually work.
18:40To get to the bottom of this,
18:42I'm heading to Consumer Insight Company,
18:44which...
18:45Obviously, you know,
18:46we're holding these now.
18:48They've tested similar plugs
18:49that claim to save you money.
18:51We took them apart,
18:52and actually what you'll find in there
18:54is that the wiring in there
18:56is not up to UK standards.
18:58So these parts here,
18:59they might get stuck in the plug themselves,
19:01which is obviously dangerous in themselves,
19:02but also they could potentially cause a house fire
19:05because the wiring in there is so dangerous.
19:07Their tests also found absolutely no evidence
19:10the plugs could cut your energy bills,
19:13despite them being freely advertised on social media
19:16and sold on large online marketplaces.
19:19When people like us at Witch report these products,
19:22the online platforms say,
19:24yes, we'll take down those adverts.
19:25And often they do,
19:27but then what we see is
19:27the manufacturers of these products
19:29will then just pop up a different ad,
19:32slightly different wording,
19:33slightly different pictures,
19:33very similar products.
19:35It's like a game of whack-a-mole.
19:37And why isn't more being done then
19:39to make sure that these aren't able to be advertised
19:43in the way that they are being?
19:44So if these were being sold by,
19:46you know, high street retailers,
19:48then there is laws in place
19:50that they have to stick to,
19:51they'd have to take them off the site,
19:53and they'd have to be vigilant
19:54to make sure that they weren't reappearing on there.
19:56The issue that we're seeing
19:57is that the new laws that are now in place
19:59that govern online marketplaces,
20:01they're not being enforced properly.
20:03So we need more enforcement
20:04on those online platforms,
20:07on social media.
20:09Back in South Wales,
20:11Cathy can't live with the uncertainty
20:13of having spray foam insulation in her loft,
20:16so has employed another firm to remove it.
20:19Jacob is assessing the damage,
20:21and it seems Cathy has decided to act just in time.
20:25There is mould,
20:26and the mould is on the plastic belt right here.
20:30This is sort of bad news initially straight away.
20:33Because of a lack of ventilation,
20:35spray foam applied directly to certain roof underlays,
20:39like Cathy's,
20:40can cause up to 25% timber decay within five years.
20:45She's now having to spend an extra £7,000
20:48to get the spray foam removed
20:50and the timbers treated.
20:51All in all,
20:52she's out of pocket by over £10,000.
20:56It's a bit gawling as well,
20:58you know,
20:59when you think you're sort of listening to the government
21:01and trying to do,
21:02you know,
21:03what the government advises.
21:04And then when it all goes pear-shaped,
21:06the government backs away and says,
21:09nothing we can do here,
21:12it's for the industry to sort out.
21:13In last week's budget,
21:17the government did announce
21:19they were taking action
21:20on one of the schemes,
21:21Eco4.
21:23It is a failed scheme,
21:25and so I am scrapping it,
21:26along with taking other legacy costs off bills.
21:31This means we'll all save money
21:33on our energy bills
21:34as green home improvement schemes
21:36will no longer be funded in this way.
21:39The government are also offering people audits
21:42to assess the quality of insulation work
21:44under Eco4
21:45and want the original contractors
21:47to come and fix any issues.
21:50But is this really enough
21:51when, as we've seen,
21:53it's difficult to get contractors back
21:55to fix their work
21:56and some have even ceased trading?
21:59I feel really annoyed.
22:00I feel absolutely gutted
22:02when you hear people,
22:03and we can't really help them.
22:05Homeowners are not being protected
22:06by rogue traders in this area,
22:08particularly in the green energy space.
22:10I think the legacy of this scheme
22:13is one of disappointment
22:13because it has been wasteful with money.
22:17Meanwhile, since we filmed with Steve,
22:19he's been visited by the company
22:21who carried out the work on his home.
22:23They've apologised
22:24and offered to rectify
22:26any outstanding defects.
22:29There'll always be people
22:30willing to take advantage
22:31of our desire to save money.
22:34And with so many people disappointed
22:36by the work they've had done
22:37under these government-backed schemes,
22:40it remains to be seen
22:41if warm, low-carbon homes
22:43are within our reach.
22:47That's it for tonight's programme.
22:49If you want to continue the conversation,
22:51please join in using the hashtag
22:52ITVtonight on X, Facebook and Instagram.
22:55Until next time, good evening
22:57and thank you for watching.
23:05Still to come tonight,
23:07Celia is in no mood
23:09to be messed about
23:10with an hour-long Emmerdale
23:12after the break.
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