A POLITICAL argument has broken out in Carlisle after the city council was awarded £19million to spend on making homes more energy efficient - but has spent less than £2million.

The city council's Labour group has accused the Conservative executive as being ‘asleep at the wheel’ on the distribution of the grants - with the Conservatives saying Labour are using the accusation as ‘cheap political points’.

The council were awarded £19million for sustainable warmth grants from government in December 2021, with a timeframe to award the cash to homeowners across Cumbria in grants of up to £25,000.

But an extension has had to be granted, as only £1.4million has been handed out so far.

Deputy leader of the Labour Group on Carlisle City Council Les Tickner said: “Carlisle City Council were successful in their bid to central government for a share of the sustainable warmth grants.

READ MORE: Cumbrians urged to take-up offer of Sustainable Warmth Grants

“Acting as the accountable body for Cumbria they were awarded £19.995million to be spent on addressing fuel poverty and carbon reduction by improving energy efficiency.

“At a time when energy bills are soaring combined with a cost-of-living crisis this money is to be used to retrofit up to 2,000 houses with a range of energy efficient measures.

“Regarding funding, any unspent funds held by Carlisle will be returned to government who have stated their intention to share those funds with local authorities who have successfully delivered year one and are able to do further works in their area.

“The ruling Conservative executive in Carlisle have been asleep at the wheel on this and must bear some responsibility for allowing the situation to escalate to this level.”

Portfolio holder responsible for the project Cllr Marilyn Bowman said: “I will make a political response, in response to the executive being asleep, it’s just cheap political point scoring by some members of the Labour group, when in fact members of the executive, me included, have worked extremely hard to deliver the many projects we have going on in Carlisle before the end of March.

READ MORE: Councils in Cumbria receive funding to make homes more sustainable

“It is cheap political point scoring and misinformation on a very sensitive subject.”

Cllr Bowman said £19million had been given for the sustainable warmth grants across the whole of Cumbria, with the city council being the accountable body.

She said: “We are not denying it was a slow start but the team working to deliver this now are working day and night on the project we have got.”

The money is split with two grants – the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) and the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) which make up the £19million figure, with the grants both being focused on low income households.

Mrs Bowman said that time has had to be taken for the contractor involved to assess homes for the grants.

She said the council now have extra team members in and £1.4million has now been spent from the fund.

The LAD grant has been granted an extension until November, with the HUG being set for the end in May, with comment unable to be made on an extension.

When asked whether money would have to go back to government in November if not spent, Cllr Bowman confirmed they would have to return any money left by that date to government but said: “We will do our very best to ensure we spend the maximum we can in the time that we have got.”

The Labour group said that Eden District Council is set to take on the mantle of 'accountable body' for the county as the scheme enters its second year. "Any uncompleted applications will be passported to the Eden team but will need to be reassessed under any new criteria," they added.

Examples of the work that may be carried out with the funding includes wall insulation, solar panels, loft and cavity wall insulation, air source heat pumps, and the upgrading of single-glazed windows to double-glazed.

The council's website indicates that the scheme is currently receiving a high volume of applications, and the phone line is 'currently operating on an answering machine-only basis'.