Monday 1 March 2021

TUC: Cuts to the Green Homes Grant would be a ‘wrecking ball’ for green jobs

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has warned that the withdrawal of hundreds of millions of pounds from the Green Homes Grant scheme would be a ‘wrecking ball’ for green jobs.

The Green Homes Grant provides funding to make homes more environmentally-friendly by retrofitting them and was announced by the Chancellor in July 2020, as part of the government's 'green recovery’.

The TUC claims the government has quietly planned to cut more than £1 billion of funding from the initiative.

The warning follows its new analysis, which claims if those cuts are implemented, the government would fail to deliver the proposed 100,000 new jobs and half of those employed by the scheme could be jobless.

Its analysis states that to date, only 14,500 of these jobs have been created and that between now and the next year, 8,500 will be cut, leaving 6,000.

The union is calling for the government to reverse this decision and provide full funding to the scheme.

It has set out plans to create 1.24 million green jobs within the next two years. The roles include the retrofitting of homes, installation of faster broadband and bringing forward green technology. As part of its plans, the money for the Green Homes Grant should be redirected towards local authorities to deliver private and social housing in a more energy-efficient way.

Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of TUC, said: “This funding cut will be a wrecking ball to green jobs. The Green Homes Grant was supposed to create jobs, not cost them. By pulling the funding, the government has shown it is not serious about ‘building back better’.

“A proper green jobs drive could stop mass unemployment, help power our economic recovery and tackle climate change. The chancellor must take the opportunity to reverse this damaging decision on Wednesday at the Budget. And he must drive our recovery forward with a powerful green stimulus that creates millions more good secure jobs.”

future Net Zero has contacted BEIS for a response.