A grant scheme to help people make energy-efficient improvements to their homes will close this week, the Government has announced.

The green homes grant scheme was launched in September 2020 and offered vouchers for homeowners and residential landlords to install improvements such as insulation or low-carbon heating.

Low-income households were eligible for 100% of the costs up to £10,000, while other households could get vouchers worth two-thirds of the costs up to £5,000.

The scheme was expected to continue until the end of March 2022, but following a review of the scheme by MPs last week, applications for the scheme will now close at 5pm on Wednesday (31 March 2021).

The environmental audit select committee criticised the scheme for being "rushed in conception and poorly implemented", and called the Government's target to retrofit 600,000 homes through it "wildly optimistic".

To date, around 96,000 applications have been made through the scheme and 39,000 vouchers have been issued.

Announcing the decision to close the scheme, the Government said it was "designed to provide a short-term economic boost while tackling our contribution to climate change".

The £300 million previously allocated for local authorities under the scheme will go into a separate programme for green home upgrades.

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