£505m Welsh ‘homes as power stations’ project has only created six jobs to date
Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter
A £505m project to make homes more energy efficient in southwest Wales is chronically understaffed, with just six jobs created to date, a review has found.
The “homes as power stations” initiative is the largest of nine Swansea Bay city deal projects and aims to retrofit 7,000 council, housing association and private properties in Neath Port Talbot, Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire with the latest energy-saving, generating and storage technology.
Retrofitting is expensive but has major benefits for people living in the homes and for the environment.
The homes as power stations project also aims to incorporate the latest technology into 3,300 new-build homes in the region.
The project, which gained central government approval in July 2021, was reviewed by an independent team in July this year.
The review said a lot of work was going on in the background but that visible progress appeared limited.
It said: “The project has suffered, and continues to suffer, from a chronic lack of staffing in key posts that are currently subject to a recruitment exercise.”
On the plus side, the review said the senior staff who were in position were highly regarded and that the project had broad public sector, private and academic support.
But reviewers gave it an “amber/red” status, meaning successful delivery was a concern and urgent action was needed.
“The review team sees a high degree of passion, subject fluency, and commitment to succeed, but delivery confidence is low owing to resourcing position,” it said.
The homes as power station initiative has a project manager and, very recently, a technical coordinator, but according to a report going before a joint committee which oversees the city deal, it still doesn’t have a supply chain lead officer – which is considered a key role – despite the post being advertised three times.
The joint committee will be given an update on Thursday, November 10.
1,800 jobs hopes
The project is expected to create 1,800 jobs over a 15-year timeframe and a demand among the housing sector for the latest energy-saving methods and technologies.
An independent organisation will be used to evaluate the effectiveness and design of these technologies.
The private sector is a critical piece of the £505m jigsaw, given that it is expected to contribute £375m.
Central government will invest £15m, with the remainder coming from public sector partners locally.
However, only £3.7m has been invested so far, and just six jobs created. A further review of the Neath Port Talbot Council-led project is expected to be carried out next July.
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What a shame, as we nead a great deal more of that sort of work to be done in Wales. Ceredigion is particularly ‘behind’ in terms of the energy efficiency of its housing stock since so many are old solid walled buildings. One wonders if the recruitment of the key role of supply chain lead officer is being held back by a ‘Welsh Speaking’ clause in the advert. In years past key skills were bought in from where ever they could be found and soon become well integrated. My nain (in law), who was one of the most Welsh folk… Read more »
So far it is not a £505M project but one that has cost £3.7M up to July 2022 having only been given business case approval by government a year earlier. It might be helpful to know when the first Westminster funding became available and thus when the project could have begun but so far this headline is worthy of Wales Online or any other rag. Tenders are still being issued and so far I can’t find a website so the project is still in gestation for a five year first phase to October 2027. Amazing thing this here Google, try… Read more »
Well done. That does rather change the story.