Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

That is a concern of ours right now. There were headlines in the paper about 40-year highs in inflation. The accepted figure at the end of last year was about 7%. Even within that 7%, the wholesale price index showed higher price rises in some of the fittings used in retrofits. Plaster and electric fittings went up by 20%, insulation by 11% and pipes and fittings by 10%. That is all effectively history because of what has happened in the past month in Ukraine. Things have taken another hop up. We are keeping a close eye on it and are in contact with our suppliers, particularly on the warmer homes scheme.

We have considered bulk buying but there is considerable risk to an organisation like ours, so we typically fund grants through others to do it. We have been talking to local authorities and things like that. One of the ways to try to mitigate inflation is aggregation. If a contractor goes into a housing estate and does a home here and there, it is expensive. If a local authority or approved housing body, for example, can go in and do a range of homes in one go, it gets economies of scale. Inflation is running at a rate we have not seen in 40 years.