There is no reason to give up insulation of external walls | Energy efficiency

Negative coverage around solid wall insulation (SWI) risks deterring people from insulating the UK’s 8.5 million solid-wall homes, which we need to do to meet greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, as well as install heat pumps efficiently (almost all external insulation fitted under the Tory scheme needs to be repaired or replaced, it has been found Report, October 14).

It is true that SWI is a high-risk retrofit procedure since poor quality installations can lead to disastrous results, but we have known this for at least a decade – we need better quality SWI and better training for installers.

Your report says: “Almost all external insulation installed under the previous government’s energy efficiency scheme was installed so poorly that it had to be repaired or replaced.” But Ofgem, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero know about the 60,000 government-funded SWI installations and have written to all of them. However, only 5,900 of them responded – suggesting that only 10% believe they have a problem.

The article cites a National Audit Office report, which confuses failure to meet PAS 2035 (a very stringent standard for retrofit procedures) with “defects”. Other research also shows that SWI is often well established.

It’s true that solid wall insulation can go very wrong. As with roof repairs, poor workmanship or corner-cutting can be very expensive to correct. However, this is no reason to abandon solid wall insulation – just as it is not a reason to abandon roof repairs.
Jason Palmer
Senior Research Fellow, UCL Energy Institute