Submitted by birgit on Thu, 04/01/2021 – 11:28

You’ll most likely have the heard the news that the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme has ended a year earlier than expected.

On Saturday 27 March the government announced the withdrawal of the Green Homes Grant, its flagship £1.5bn programme to retrofit 600,000 homes in England. The scheme closed to new applications on 31 March after failing to meet a fraction of its target.

Whilst this news is disappointing for contractors and householders alike, it is worth remembering that the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme was only one scheme among several designed to upgrade homes for a low-carbon future.  

Opportunities remain for contractors to work on other government-funded retrofit schemes and the Futureproof Skills & Certification programme can help prepare for these.

The Futureproof Skills & Certification programme offers three key elements that are essential conditions for government-funded retrofit schemes and these are:

• Whole-house retrofit training developed by The Green Register
• Full support and certification in PAS2030:19, in a single measure
• Trustmark registration

Contractors who have these skills and certifications under their belts will have met the key mandatory requirements for accessing the GHG Local Authority Delivery (LAD), Home Upgrade Grants (HUG) and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) schemes – many of which tackle climate change and fuel poverty in tandem.

Limited funded places are available for unemployed contractors to access whole-house retrofit training.

For further information on joining the Futureproof Skills & Certification programme, please visit www.greenregister.org.uk/futureproof

With additional support from our partners at WECA and North Somerset council, we are able to offer some FREE places on the programme. Please see here for details or enquire at futureproof@greenregister.org.uk