For thousands of British homeowners, a government promise to make homes warmer and greener has turned into a years-long ordeal of damp, mould, and unanswered questions. On October 30, 2025, calls for a wider investigation into botched insulation schemes reached a new pitch, as residents and campaigners demanded accountability from both local and national authorities.
It’s a story that stretches back more than a decade. Between 2013 and 2025, the British government poured billions of pounds into offering free insulation—external wall and other solid wall types—for roughly 280,000 properties. The goal was simple enough: cut carbon emissions and help low-income households save on energy bills. But as the BBC reports, for many, the reality has been anything but simple—or positive.
Earlier this month, government figures revealed a staggering 92% of external wall insulation installed over the past three years under these schemes had at least one major issue. Yet ministers insisted that systemic problems were confined to work completed since 2022. When pressed by the BBC on why all previous installations weren’t being reviewed, officials pointed instead to new “comprehensive reforms” they said would fix the broken system. For many families, that answer just isn’t good enough.
Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East, has been among those urging the government to widen its probe. "Families who tried to do the right thing to make their homes warmer and greener have been left paying the price for failure and negligence," he told the BBC. The pain is especially acute in places like Fishwick, Preston, where a 2013 insulation project has become a cautionary tale for what can go wrong when oversight fails.
In Fishwick, 350 Victorian homes were fitted with external wall insulation. But as Andrej Miller of the National Energy Action (NEA) charity, who spent 18 years in government climate and energy teams, put it, the project quickly became “the ultimate project gone wrong.” Bad design and workmanship meant rainwater got trapped behind the insulation, soaking through walls and creating perfect conditions for mould and damp.
Bushra Rashid, a 72-year-old Fishwick resident, described to the BBC how she’s been unable to sleep in her own bedroom for years. Damp plaster crumbles from the walls, and she fears the conditions are damaging her health. Her late husband, Abdul, saw the house deteriorate before his eyes. Their son, Atif, recalled, “He spent time crying because he felt helpless. He felt betrayed and had nowhere to go to get help.”
The installer responsible for Fishwick’s insulation went bust soon after finishing the job, leaving guarantees worthless. Complaints about the work began pouring in before the project even wrapped up. Andrea Howe, then the council’s energy officer, recounted "horrifying" stories: mushrooms sprouting from walls, light fittings turned into water features, and ceilings so soaked they threatened to collapse. When government officials toured Fishwick homes in 2015, one was left "heartbroken" by the sight of a child’s bedroom ceiling pinned up to keep it from falling.
Despite the outcry, support for affected homeowners has been patchy at best. Ofgem, the energy regulator, enforced repairs for 62 homes in 2018. The NEA charity managed to fix another 45, at a staggering average cost of £70,000 per property, but ran out of funds before the job was done. A 2019 government-commissioned report found that all 350 Fishwick homes suffered failures due to poor design, assessment, ventilation, and workmanship. The report was never published or shared with residents.
As Miller told the BBC, Fishwick’s experience highlights a "systemic issue in how government works"—ministers and officials rarely stick around long enough to see problems through to resolution. Meanwhile, the suffering continues. Tasneem Hussain, another Fishwick resident, has redecorated her home more than 20 times in ten years to fight the creeping damp. She worries constantly about her disabled son, Mohammed, who is prone to infections and recently had pneumonia. “I feel this is not going to be helping him,” she said.
Preston City Council, for its part, called the Fishwick scheme a "significant failure" but said it had no direct oversight of the contractors. "It is hugely regrettable that neither the original installers nor indeed the government have provided the level of support so obviously required when the scale of failed external wall insulation became apparent," the council told the BBC.
And Fishwick is hardly alone. In Chilton, Jean Liddle, 82, found her home filling with damp and mould after external wall insulation was fitted under a council-organised, government-funded scheme. A survey commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero warned of "immediate risk to the fabric of the building and health of the occupant"—but Jean wasn’t told. She only found out about the danger after filing a freedom of information request. Some repairs have since been made, but building surveyor David Walter believes her home is still unsafe due to "dampness and mould and powder and dust." Jean accused both the council and central government of treating her like "just a number."
Durham County Council, responsible for Chilton, apologized and said it was "working with residents and the subcontractor to address any outstanding issues." Conflicting survey findings have complicated repairs, and the council offered "sincere apologies for any distress caused." The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero admitted residents in Fishwick and Chilton were "let down by poor installation" and promised future reforms would ensure clear accountability and rapid fixes when things go wrong.
The National Audit Office recently found that the government has no accurate data on failure rates in earlier insulation schemes. Dr. Peter Rickaby, an energy expert who helped review the sector in 2016, warned that problems with external wall insulation can take up to a decade to show up as damp. Industry insiders now see Fishwick as a textbook example of how not to run a retrofit project—but similar problems have cropped up in later schemes, too.
With hundreds of thousands of properties affected and no clear end in sight, the consequences of these failed insulation efforts are still being felt across the country. Residents like Atif Rashid are calling for real accountability. “I think people have to be held to account,” he told the BBC. “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.”
Despite official promises of reform, many homeowners remain skeptical. For now, they continue to wait—hoping that the next round of government action will finally bring the comfort and security they were promised, and that the lessons of Fishwick and Chilton won’t be forgotten.
