HOUSEHOLDERS could be missing out on energy-saving wall insulation following a change in Government policy, according to a council’s green champion.

Around 2,000 homes across the Stockton Borough Council area earmarked for free external wall insulation will now miss out.

Last year, it was announced the GoWarm project, which has already helped 1,700 householders across Stockton and Thornaby, would now encompass 5,000 privately owned homes.

However, changes to the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) carbon emissions’ targets in April have diverted the energy companies’ – in Stockton’s case E.ON – attention away from insulating older, solid-walled houses and towards providing cavity-wall and loft insulation.

Under the scheme, E.ON was obliged to provide carbon reduction measures free of charge by fitting external cladding to solid-walled houses, which include some of the poorest homes across the borough with some of the highest fuel bills.

However, the Government’s reduction in targets – which simultaneously aimed to cut all UK energy customers’ bills by £50 - has forced E.ON to concentrate on other carbon saving measures instead.

Cllr David Rose, Stockton Council’s cabinet member for the environment, described the change in policy as “depressing” and “devastating”, estimating that between a fifth and a quarter of the 7,000 solid-walled homes in the borough are in fuel poverty.

He said: “Not having the insulation affects everything in these people’s lives, from their quality of life to their health. They have to choose between food, their children’s clothes and heating their homes.”

Karen Hindhaugh, director of GoWarm, which has been working with the council to insulate the homes, said she has found her work “significantly scaled down.”

A spokesperson for E.ON said that they did not advocate for a reduction in targets, adding: “We have already helped more than 3,000 homes with solid wall insulation and other measures. Alongside that we are working in the community today, helping another 866 homes.”

A Stockton Council spokeswoman said while Government policy had had a dramatic impact, the council has continued work in the Borough’s most deprived areas such as Parkfield, Oxbridge and Newtown wards in Stockton and the Mandale and Victoria areas of Thornaby. The funding will come from cutting costs and council resources.

A spokesperson from the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “We are constantly revising the scheme to ensure consumers get the best value for money and many more homes can benefit in the years ahead.”