'Poor' insulation that left houses mouldy needs wider investigation, government told

Bushra and her husband, Abdul, bought their home in the early 1970s. In 2013, insulation boards were fixed to the exterior brickwork of the Victorian homes and render applied with the purpose of making it waterproof.

The idea behind many of the government schemes was to cut carbon emissions by getting energy companies to install energy-saving measures, including insulation, on people's homes. The schemes were targeted at low-income households and paid for via the "green levy" on energy bills.

However, "bad design and bad workmanship" on the Fishwick project meant that rainwater got trapped behind the insulation and penetrated walls in houses such as the Rashids', according to building surveyor David Walter.

Abdul Rashid, who was a bus driver, died from Parkinson's disease four years ago. His son, Atif, says that despite his illness, his father knew the house was being destroyed by the botched installation.

"He spent time crying because he felt helpless,'' says Atif. He adds that his father ''felt betrayed'' and had ''nowhere to go'' to get help.

The Fishwick project had not even been completed before Preston City Council - which had encouraged residents to sign up for the insulation - started receiving complaints about the quality of the work.

"Horrifying" stories about poor workmanship, mushrooms growing on walls and light fittings being turned into "water features", were being reported back to Andrea Howe, the council's energy officer at the time.

The installer went bust soon after the project finished, and any guarantees were considered worthless because the insulation wasn't fitted properly.

Ms Howe says she took her concerns to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and showed photographs of the damaged homes to officials. In the winter of 2015, a group of civil servants were taken on a tour of Fishwick's homes.

She recalls what one official told her he had seen: ''He went into one house and in the small child's bedroom there was a sheet kind of pinned all around the ceiling because the ceiling was falling down - it was that wet."

Ms Howe says he told her he was heartbroken: ''He said he had never seen anything like it.''

It's unclear how many other schemes involving this type of insulation have gone wrong.

The National Audit Office's recent report suggests the government doesn't have an accurate picture of failure rates in earlier schemes.

It says of one scheme, ECO3, which ran from 2018 to 2022, ''we do not know how many measures were audited for quality compliance''.

Dr Peter Rickaby, an energy expert who contributed to an independent review of the sector published in 2016, said problems with external wall insulation can take up to 10 years before they appear as damp on people's homes.

Meanwhile in Fishwick, Atif says he is disgusted by the behaviour shown by successive governments to his parents.

"I think people have to be held to account," he says. "Whether it's the government, the energy firms, their local suppliers, the councils... responsibility has to sit somewhere, and it shouldn't be the homeowners."

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