Dr. Oliver Kinnane:

We do a lot of monitoring of retrofit homes and retrofit generally, and what we see is better social housing or very high-end housing being retrofitted. Often it is period houses being retrofitted by a retrofit nerd type of homeowner who will put in a heat pump with all the bells and whistles. There is a gap in the middle where people cannot access funding. We see this with the vacant homes refurbishment grant also. Essentially this grant is not paid until all of the works are done and there is a big administrative process. Many people apply for it. I believe 14,000 applied for it, 7,000 got approved and 1,500 got funded. Many people are lost on the journey. Many people do not have the money to pay upfront and then wait for it to be funded at the end or even take the risk it might not be funded at the end.