DECC relies (being the operative word) on a private contractor, Newcastle-based Eaga to administer and manage 139 contractors including 7 wholly-owned subsidies responsible for heating and installation measures. Around 25 per cent of customers have had to contribute to the costs of the work (average £600 contributions) and are not able to obtain other quotes! Over 20,000 applicants have either withdrawn or not progressed their applications. It is predicted 2012 will see a significant underspend (£30 million) caused due to applicants er… not applying for the work!! And remember the purpose of the scheme was to help vulnerable households.

Meanwhile Eaga have made a fortune whilst claiming to have delivered £240 million worth of savings (if the experience of poor customer service is common and you factor in the failure demand (not doing something or something right for the customer) and resulting ‘rework’ (making up for botched jobs done the first, second, third… times round), this figure is absolute rubbish.

There is also a Carbon Emissions Reductions Target (CERT) whereby utility companies pay Eaga to install installation measures on their behalf – claimed £45 million savings (again for the reasons above is this a pie-in-the-sky nonsense figure). In recent times the scheme has been scaled back. It is alleged that a sizeable number of complaints go unreported (after all it is not in the interests of sub-contractors to report complaints as they risk fines). Eaga claim to take 3 months or 64 working days to have heating systems installed and five weeks or 27 working days to have property insulated. Again for the failure and rework issues, take these numbers with a large pinch of salt (they are not even impressive even if they undertook quality work).

All in all the Warm Front scheme is a classic example of how Whitehall wastes soooooo much money (it doesn’t matter what political party forms the government – most politicians are equally clueless about management and work) – write a strategy and come up with a whizzy scheme and don’t worry about the operations = how it gets delivered and by whom. Meanwhile, unscrupulous commercial carpetbaggers have a field-day – it would be funny if it didn’t occur so often.

Rant over.

After around a year the they had problems, the boiler would randomly turn on the hot water when taps were not running (thus using gas when it wasn’t needed), and one kitchen wall suddenly became very damp. Eventually the problem was found, under the kitchen floor, one of the hot water pipes had a junction that used to lead to the radiator that had been moved, instead of capping the junction properly, the warm front contractor had simply flattened the end of the pipe and bent it over, this adhoc seal had failed, and had being spraying hot water under the floorboards and up the kitchen wall for approximately 6 months. Due to this an industrial dehumidifier had to be hired to dry out the kitchen floor and the wall needed re-plastering and decorating, this was done through the house insurance, though only after paying the excess.

Earlier this year the boiler broke down and needed a replacement gas valve, a repair that cost £175, the heating engineer who did the work said it was a shame that the warm front scheme had turned out as it had, because in his opinion the Ideal Isar was so unreliable as to be almost unfit for purpose and had some of the more expensive parts in the market. He stated that his company would no longer install the Isar boilers for clients as they had so many of them fail.

This evening, the boiler had broken down again, and is at this minute completely dead, thus requiring the engineer out again for the second time this year. I may add that there are signs of limescale and corrosion around the bottom of the boiler tank, which is not an encouraging sign in a boiler that is not yet 6 years old.

I can’t help feel that the Warm Front Scheme has been used line someones pockets, and that penny pinching on the boilers themselves has resulted in sub standard, unreliable equipment being installed in the homes of the elderly.

What should have been a great scheme that provided those that need it the most with reliable, efficient central heating and hot water, has for my family at least left a rather bitter taste in the mouth.

Of course, many (particularly elderly or infirm) people dont have access to internet etc…but if they knew about such a service they might ask a friend or relative if they could check it.

This type of thing would not cost a great deal to set up and could be particularly useful in raising quality standards in all professional service areas. The right combination of market forces, user generated content and regulatory bite. This is the sort of balance we need – not the chaotic free-for-all smash and grab looting, coupled with ill thought out expensive, underresourced and ineffectual regulation that is so often the result of govt interventions. But then again, it doesnt create unnecessary jobs, vast layers of bureaucracy, inefficiency, even greater control by govt or massive costs to taxpayers…so unlikely to be the sort of thing to expect from this labour govt.

(allegations about B Gas removed as they were not working for Warm front -ed)
All these (practitioners-ed) need to be reined in quite severely, but unfortunately they are enabled and encouraged by the restrictive practice known as CORGI, so they can basically name their price.

Once again we see the unintended (but widely expected) consequences of well-meaning regulation which has been hi-jacked by producer interests.

My advice – convert to oil. You don’t get so many house explosions either.