It seems that one of the coalition government's flagship environmental schemes, the Green Deal, was largely unpopular. The Green Deal was designed to provide loans to householders, which were repaid through energy bills, to be used on home energy improvements, such as loft insulation.
However, it was abandoned in 2015 having provided £50m over 14,000 loans to householders. That was far below the government's estimate of £1.1 billion that would be applied for through the Green Deal. Now, the Public Accounts Committee has said that projections for the scheme were "wildly optimistic" and that the poor take-up was because the idea had not been tested first.
The MPs said: "Householders were not persuaded that energy efficiency measures were worth paying for through the Green Deal and take-up of loans was abysmal." And this is partly because the scheme was complex, involved lots of paperwork, and put people off because of the 10% interest rates on the loans.
Committee chairperson, Meg Hillier, said: "Not enough work went into establishing the scheme's appeal to households, nor to its implementation, nor to examining the experience of governments setting up similar schemes overseas. This blinkered approach resulted in a truly dismal take-up for green deal loans and a cost to taxpayers of £17,000 for every loan arranged."
MPs were also unable to establish whether the scheme actually helped to reduce fuel poverty.
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