Elaine Loughlin: Retrofit plan will go up in smoke if we can’t find people to do the work

Householders upgrading their homes will be competing against wealthy multinationals for scarce skilled workers

Retrofitting 500,000 homes to transform them into warmer, energy-efficient properties that are cheaper to run makes sense, but where are we going to find the workers to carry out the job?

The Cabinet is this morning expected to sign off on a highly improved scheme that will provide households with around 50% of the price of a deep retrofit and in turn bring down the cost of running their homes.