Welsh Government content with £4.1m housing repair spend

Lewis Smith Local Democracy Reporter

The Welsh Government has told a Senedd committee it is satisfied with how funding has been spent to repair homes that were damaged in a botched insulation scheme.

Members of the community in Caerau, Bridgend said they had spent over ten years living in damp and mouldy homes after two projects, known as Arbed and CESP, saw more than 100 local properties damaged by a programme designed to increase their energy efficiency.

It led to a sum of £4.1m being given to Bridgend County Borough Council towards repairing the damaged properties as part of the Caerau External Wall Insulation Remediation Scheme.

However, in September 2026 the Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee wrote to Welsh Government asking what arrangements were in place to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the funding.

Chair of the committee Andrew Griffin MS said he wrote the letter after he was contacted by an individual expressing concerns about the use of public money for the scheme.

He asked what assurances the Welsh Government could give that Bridgend County Borough Council had complied with the terms and conditions of the funding, if it had been paid to them in full, and if it was still being monitored.

In response, the Welsh Government said officials had considered and acted on concerns relating to both the grant management of the scheme and the management of one specific property.

A letter from the director general for local government, housing, rural resilience and sustainability said officials were satisfied that public money had been spent appropriately and that the council’s activity had been compliant.

Additionally, they added that they were content with the rationale behind decisions at a scheme level, noting that funding for the project had ended on March 31, 2026.

This was paid in full and continues to be monitored while the remaining work, which is being funded by Bridgend County Borough Council’s contribution, continues.

While the letter acknowledged a “long history of discontent” over the original energy efficiency scheme in Caerau, as well as frustration at the time taken for repairs, it said there had only been a small number of complaints about the work done as part of the remediation scheme.

The letter said: “the primary complaint we have received on the grant conditions relates to properties where there has been variation from installing external wall insulation.

“Applied appropriately to the right houses, external wall insulation can bring significant benefits. During the course of inspecting properties requiring remedial work, technical issues were detected in some homes which made the installation of external wall insulation inappropriate.

“In other instances, despite the guarantees which would accompany the
installation, residents refused the insulation because they had such bad experiences with the initial installation. In both cases, a standard render finish was offered as an alternative.

“This was discussed and agreed between the Welsh Government and the local authority as a reasonable grant variation because it was in line with the purpose of the grant and reflected the individual circumstances found when the technical experts inspected the properties.”

The repair scheme is now said to be nearing completion, with most of the
approved works completed and only final inspections remaining, with one exception.

Bridgend County Borough Council will have to provide a closure report containing information for all properties repaired under the scheme.

The letter and response was noted by members of the Senedd’s Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee at a meeting held on November 9, 2026.