Citizens Advice Scotland Report On HELMS Green Deal Mis-Selling

EDM number 1869 in 2017-19, proposed by Alan Brown on 21/11/2018.
Categorised under the topics of Energy conservation and Housing.

That this House welcomes the publication of the Bad Company report by Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) and commends the local impact study on the same issue by East Ayrshire Citizens Advice Bureau (EACAS); notes that the Bad Company report highlights endemic consumer issues with one green deal supplier, Home Energy and Lifestyle Management Systems (HELMS); further notes that the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, Derek Mitchell, has written to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ask the Government to urgently take action to help and support consumers who have been left stressed and distressed by becoming HELMS customers; notes that this includes asking the Government to instruct an independent body to contact all affected customers and support them in the complaints process, to review all complaints in order to clarify how widespread mis-selling was, establish a dedicated redress scheme for HELMS customers to fast-track complaints and provide satisfactory compensation for people affected, find a solution for consumers who were mis-sold Feed-in Tariffs so that any lost payments are refunded and affected householders are the registered beneficiaries for future payments, and provide bespoke solutions for customers who have complex issues to resolve around faulty goods and Building Warrants; notes that CAS is aware of over 1,140 complaints lodged with different agencies from consumers from many areas of Scotland and that those cases could be the tip of the iceberg; further welcomes the additional report from EACAB, Deal or no Deal, which details local impacts, and commends the work of CAS in highlighting this issue and standing up for consumers; and urges the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy to act on the requests from CAS.

This motion has been signed by a total of 15 MPs.