§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many applications for the installation of heating equipment have been made to the Eaga Partnership in each of the last three years; how many have been successful; what the average waiting time was; how many homes have had to wait more than nine months for such works to be undertaken; and if she will make a statement. [24956]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (HEES), now marketed as The Warm Front Team, is administered in three of the four English regions by Eaga Partnership Ltd. (London and south-east; south-west and west midlands and north-west and north-east).
Heating was made available from the launch of the redesigned scheme on 1 June 2000. The previous scheme, which had run from 1991, provided one main insulation measure only. Hence the information provided in the table relates to the new scheme.
The package of heating and insulation measures to be installed is not known until a HEES surveyor has visited the client's home and an assessment has been made of the measures already in place.
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Number Applications received 419,000 Eligible applications received 1336,000 Applications where gas central heating has been recommended 81,300 Successful applications for gas central heating 279,500 Current average waiting time to install a new gas central heating system (days) 3180 Homes that have waited more than 9 months for a new gas central heating system 6,600 1 It is not possible to identify the package of the measures to be installed in a client's home until the HEES surveyor has visited the property. This assessment takes into account the measures already installed. 2 It is not possible to identify why the client decided not to proceed with the HEES surveyor's recommendations. 3 Days measured from date of call with respect of telephone applications, from date of receipt in case of postal applications or from date of e-mail. There is usually a period of 1–8 weeks between the date of actual installation and the receipt of the invoice from installers. Since the launch of the scheme on 1 June 2000 Eaga Partnership's contractors have installed 25,000 new gas-fired central heating systems. The majority of householders who have waited over nine months were those who applied to the scheme when it was first launched.
The national shortage of gas heating engineers has led to severe delays in some areas in the installation and repair of central heating systems. Over the last 12 months Eaga has increased its heating installer base from 30 to 130 companies. Already this is paying dividends with the number of installations rising to 1,000 in January 2001 compared to 3,500 in December 2001.