Boiler scheme fraud report to be discussed in private

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

An independent report into a controversial boiler grant scheme known as Eco2 will be discussed by senior county councillors behind closed doors tomorrow (Thursday).

The scheme is administered by Powys County Council (PCC) who have asked Somerset-based Internal Auditors, SWAP, to investigate after claims of fraud were made earlier this year.

Powys Plumbing Group (PPG) contacted councillors back in January about suspected “widespread fraud” with the Eco2 boiler grant scheme.

They claim that the next grant scheme, Eco3, could be even worse and have now made a complaint to the watchdog, Ofgem.

The scheme is supposed to help vulnerable households living in fuel poverty cut their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions by installing energy saving measures such as insulation and high efficiency boilers.

Funded by energy companies, to qualify for the scheme, households should have an income of less than £21,000. But PPG claims that households with an income of more than £60,000 could receive help.

They believe the council’s proposals for the Eco3 scheme would have “devastating consequences” for hundreds of businesses, their employees and the Powys economy if implemented in its current format.

In January, the Health, Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee was due to look at a “proposition for the adoption of Eco3, the successor to Eco2, and provide recommendations to the Cabinet”.

But councillors who had received the letter decided to defer the issue and also asked for Eco3’s implementation to be postponed until the letter had been investigated.

Monitoring officer, Clive Pinney, has exempted the item under rule 14.8 of the Council’s access to information rules: “To make this information public would disclose information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings. These factors outweigh the public interest test in disclosing this information.”

A spokeswoman for Ofgem said: “As a matter of course we do not confirm or deny we have received information from any source in relation to an organisation. Furthermore, we do not comment on any investigation we may be conducting.”