Sub-contractors to be involved in green retrofits

Builders who are registered to carry out green home refurbishments will be able to sub-contract in a bid to widen the number of tradespeople who can do the work.

The government said subcontracting any part of the work involved in installing eligible improvements must be carried out in accordance with the relevant publicly accessible standards certification (PAS), or microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) requirement with regards to subcontracting.

The primary installer must assume full responsibility for any subcontracted work.

The accreditation and subcontracting requirements and rules are the same across both the regular and low income parts of the scheme.

The move follows poor take up to register with TrustMark to do energy efficiency retrofits such as insulation, solar panels and heat pumps under the government’s Green Homes Grant scheme.

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said just three of its 250 members interested in doing the work had registered. This is because few building firms have the MCS or PAS 30 required.

However, Rico Wojtulewicz, housing and planning policy head of The National Federation of Builders (NFB), said allowing sub-contractors to do the work was creating another layer of bureaucracy and would not guarantee high standards.

“It’s illogical to assume having a sub-contractor with a registered firm taking on the liability will ensure quality,” he commented.

Rico said shell companies could be created to do the work and then close if there was a problem. The NFB added that PAS 35 certification, which covers the whole lifetime of a building, would have been a better qualification.

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