AN action group led by a former SNP MP has made a breakthrough in its three-year long fight to solve problems left behind when homeowners were missold energy-saving measures by Green Deal firm HELMS.

Anne McLaughlin, who represented the Glasgow North East constituency until the snap election of 2017, said some campaigners were “crying with the relief” when they learned of the case’s progress.

Thousands of people across Scotland were left with long-term debt after signing up for new energy-efficient boilers, insulation and solar panels with HELMS. Customers were told the energy efficiency improvements were part of the UK Government’s Green Deal policy, which was launched in 2013 and scrapped two years later.

HELMS, which was on the UK Government’s Green Deal approved list, told customers their energy-saving improvements would come at no cost to them and would save them money on bills while helping the environment. In fact, customers ended up with long finance agreements they weren’t made aware of and in many cases higher bills.

In Balornock, in McLaughlin’s former constituency, around 60 people signed up for cladding. It later emerged HELMS, which has now gone bust, hadn’t applied for necessary building warrants and told some customers these warrants were not required.

Those affected now “have homes that they cannot sell and more importantly homes that they can’t insure,” McLaughlin, chair person of the action group, explained. “Even if the house was to burn down, their insurance, they’ve been told, will be invalidated. So I’ve got these people that can't sleep at night.”

Glasgow City Council told those who had taken on the cladding that, in this case, building warrants couldn’t be issued retrospectively or for groups – so McLaughlin used her free time to try and change that. By bringing in experts and getting building materials tested, McLaughlin has got to the point where finally the application can be made.

“The council have said okay, you can do a retrospective group application. I tell you when I told [the group] at a public meeting of the progress, some of them were crying with the relief because they’ve been fighting this for years and were worried sick.”

This week the group also found out one of the companies involved in the analysis of HELMS’s work had offered to foot the bill for the future council charges, set to be around £110 each, down from an initial £700.

“It’s not a massive amount of money – for some people it is – but it’s not that,” McLaughlin said. “It’s that, finally, people were saying ‘aye what happened to you was wrong’ and actually caring enough to do something about it. It’s huge for them.”

McLaughlin has also been helping members of the group send letters to the Secretary of State, but hasn’t been impressed with the handling of the issue. “The UK Government

approved these people ... and they’re not responding to complaints.

“Sometimes they respond and acknowledge and ask for information you’ve already given them, sometimes they just ignore it, sometimes they say they haven’t received it.

“Some people in Ayrshire are waiting, a year later they haven’t even had an acknowledgement of their formal complaint.

“I think they should put together a compensation package to cover the costs that everybody’s incurred and to give compensation. And I think they should do it as a matter of urgency, particularly for people who are in their 80s.”

McLaughlin thinks the situation could have been avoided had Westminster been “a bit more careful” in approving firms for the Green Deal. “They could have had safeguards in place, but they didn’t,” she added.

She said overall, the council agreeing to accept the application from the group is “one step along the way”. 

“Hopefully they’ll get their building warrants and beyond getting them compensation and beyond getting the cancellation of the agreements, I’m also really keen to look at the whole piece of legislation around how companies can do this.

"I really want to pay tribute to the tenacity of the local action group. Most of them have never campaigned for anything and they've been tremendous. I just feel it demonstrates what ordinary people can do when they find their power.

The National: Mary Hunter, 86, Balornock Mary Hunter, 86, Balornock

MARY Hunter, from Balornock, had work carried out by HELMS. The firm told her she wouldn’t “need to worry” about costs. She was signed up to a 25-year Green Deal loan and would later have problems with building warrants.

“I felt really stupid actually, that I’d let myself get into something like this. But they kept saying it was a government deal and I said well if its the government that’s pushing it, it must be okay. 

“They said we wouldn’t be able to sell our houses because of this.

“I was 81 when I got the job done and I’ll be 87 next month. I wasn’t expecting to have that to deal with at my age ... it has been stressful. 

“I don’t think I would be anywhere near where I am today if [the action group] hadn’t been behind me, pointing me in the right direction of what to do and what not to do. 

“I know I’ll probably need to pay something. I am paying, every month I’m paying for it. But it’s the 25 years ... I’ll not be here in 25 years and I don’t like the idea of somebody taking on my debt after anything that happens to me. 

“So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens now.”

Local scaffolding firm steps in to pay for council costs

AS SCAFFOLDING was one of the firms brought in to investigate the systems HELMS used as part of the action group’s efforts to win over Glasgow City Council.

The East End business’s managing director Elisa Martin said she heard about the aftermath of HELMS’s work while on the job. After reading up on it further, she thought what had happened was “tragic”.

The scaffolding company agreed to do the initial excavation work for free. Now, it has agreed to foot the cost of the action groups’ building warrants at around £116 each.
Martin said the case “really affected” her.

“There was people there who cant insure their houses, they cant sell their houses,” she said. “People have worked hard all their life – a lot of these people are quite elderly and probably put a lot of their life savings into it, to get these things done. So that was pretty emotional.”
Martin, whose company frequently gives to charity and founded the Emmie Smillie Charity Foundation after the death of her sister four years ago, said acts like this are just “something you do” as a business.

“See when you’re in business sometimes you’ve just got to put something back,” she explained.