The construction industry is in danger of missing out on domestic retrofit work as utilities companies take on more work in the sector, Construction News reported.
Firms such as British Gas are leading the field when it comes to securing work in the low-carbon sector, according to Robert Lambe, Willmott Dixon’s new head of sustainability.
Because of their expertise and the demands placed on them by government carbon reduction targets, utilities firms are often best placed to roll out retrofit schemes, Lambe said.
“The problem for us is funding. There are a lot of investors willing to put money into the area of energy efficiency but it is about scale, it has to be of significant proportions and the market has not matured yet.
“Major utilities providers are in a better position than we are as they have been told they have to do the work and are putting billions of pounds into it because they are obliged to do so,” he said.
Construction News also quoted a construction “insider” who said it should be of “concern” that energy and utilities companies were already training their workforces in the area of retrofit.
Lambe’s comments follow the news that high-street supermarkets such as M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are increasingly addressing the domestic retrofit and green energy sector, capitalising on consumers’ trust in their household names.
British Gas said it was seeing high demand for energy efficiency measures and hoped to capitalise on it.
The company said demand for energy efficiency had proven to be significant and that it had insulated more than 2.7 million UK lofts and cavity walls in the past five years.
A spokesperson said that there were approximately 13m lofts requiring insulation, 6m unfilled cavity walls and around 3.5m G-rated boilers that need replacing.
In a separate story, Construction News reports a new poll that claims Germany is better prepared than the UK to take advantage of the £3.2 trillion global environmental market.
The study, commissioned by the Carbon Trust, found that 34 % of UK business leaders polled believe Germany is best prepared to benefit from green growth, with only 13 % citing the UK as the most prepared nation.
And while 92 % believe green growth presents opportunities, only 9 per cent think it is likely their companies will benefit directly.
