The recently re-fuelled second phase of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) has run out of cash just a day after it opened in what has been described as ‘the latest gold rush’. The £24m fund for solid wall insulation for homeowners in England and Wales was launched last Wednesday, (December 10th) however it was announced on Thursday by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that the fund was fully allocated.

It provided up to £5,600 to English and Welsh households in vouchers for solid wall insulation and home improvement measures such as double or triple glazing

A previous £120m GDHIF pot was closed in July after a surge in applications over a two-day period meant the allocated budget had been reached.

The latest round was part of the extra £100m announced in October for the GDHIF scheme.

Richard Twinn, policy and public affairs officer at the UK Green Building Council, said: ‘This is a clear illustration of the stop-start policy regime around energy efficiency. These piecemeal pots of funding may be generous for householders but create uncertainty to the industry from one week to the next.

‘As one of the most expensive measures, it’s no wonder funding for solid wall insulation has proved so popular. Solid walled properties are among the oldest and least energy efficient, and have received little support from other government schemes.

‘This latest gold rush will have been exacerbated by the high profile around the sudden closure of the previous funding over the summer. Government need to learn from this ongoing debacle that we need long term drivers for energy efficiency - such as linking Stamp Duty – to avoid this constant boom and bust.’

Jonathan Reynolds, shadow energy and climate change minister, said: ‘The Green Deal has been a total flop, and after the last round of the Home Improvements Fund, which closed after just six weeks, Labour warned that without a change of approach the government would be throwing good money after bad. Now this fund has closed the very next day after it opened.’