Fresh embarrassment for the Tories in Wales as it emerges their manifesto commits the party to support a plan that has just been scrapped in England because it risked putting firms out of business.

In March, the Commons Environmental Audit Committee found that “The impact of its botched implementation has had devastating consequences on many of the builders and installers that can do the work, who have been left in limbo as a result of the orders cancelled and time taken to approve applications.” They also said that they UK Tory management of the grant was “rushed in conception and poorly implemented … [the] scheme administration appears nothing short of disastrous.”

This is exactly the same programme the Tories in Wales have just committed to implement in the Welsh Government.

Welsh Conservative Pledge:

Support households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes with vouchers up to £5,000, with households on low incomes receiving up to £10,000 (pg30)

This pledge is the Green Homes Grant, the UK Tory Government have scrapped after just six months. Businesses were stretched to closure due to payment delays and the scheme widely mocked to be an utter failure. It’s the third green homes scheme to have been scrapped by the Tories.

This is the key pledge Andrew RT Davies is currently offering to the people of Wales at May’s elections.

Julie James, Welsh Labour’s Housing Minister said:

“You couldn’t make it up. The Tories in Wales continue to follow the Tories in England even when it ends in utter failure. Yet another farce from the England-first, Wales-never party.

 

“Welsh Labour has invested more than £360m since 2011 to improve energy efficiency, halving the number of households experiencing fuel poverty and enabling tens of thousands of Welsh households to heat their home to a safe level and to save hundreds of pounds in annual fuel bills.

 

“We’re moving Wales forward, the Tories would hold Wales back.”