Reading Borough Council has been blasted for having to return a £495,000 grant to help people insulate their homes as heating and energy bills increase.

It emerged that the council had to pay back the Government grant due to the council overestimating the amount of properties it thought would be eligible for it.

The return of the money is included the council’s quarter three financial performance and monitoring report, which states that the council was ‘unable to take advantage’ from phase 1A of the Government’s Green Homes Grant.

The incident has been called “insane” by councillor Rob White, the leader of the Green group, who has slammed the Labour administration.

READ MORE: This is what has happened to Reading's dormant ReadyBike cycle hire project

Cllr White (Park ward) said: “It leaves me speechless that Labour-run Reading Council has had to return £495,000 worth of grant money for insulating homes.

“Over one year ago we moved a budget amendment for a council officer to get more homes insulated. Labour councillors voted this down but then said they would recruit someone to a very similar position. A year on and the council has only recently started the recruitment process.

“If Labour councillors had listened then there would be more capacity around getting homes insulated. This would mean better grant applications and more of the £0.5 million grant being spent for the benefit of Reading residents.

“At least 7000 of our Reading households live in fuel poverty and this number is unfortunately only going upwards. These residents, our neighbours, cannot afford to heat their homes properly. No one should have to choose between heating and eating. £495,000 would have reduced fuel bills for some of these people substantially whilst doing our bit to help the country get off Russian gas. Greens will keep standing up for all Reading residents especially those living in poverty.”

READ MORE: Call for Reading Central Club to be sold to African Carribean Community group 

In response, a spokesperson explained why the council had not obtained the grant.

The spokesperson said: “The Council has invested heavily in recent years on increasing the energy performance of its own housing. This has resulted in an average performance rating of ‘C’ in Council homes, outperforming the national average of ‘D’.

“This in itself impacted on the Council’s ability to meet the necessary criteria for this grant as it was focused on bringing properties up to a ‘C’ energy rating, significantly reducing our ability to access the grants for our own properties. The short time frame available to meet the grant criteria was another major factor in being able to target enough eligible homes in the private sector.

“As a Council we continue to be extremely concerned at the impact of spiralling energy bills on local residents, whether they live in Council or in the private sector homes.

“We continue to build on the progress made to date to help reduce the impact for tenants and recently agreed a £34 million investment in our budget over the next five years to make Council housing even more energy efficient.

“For private sector tenants, our Winter Watch service has been running successfully for a number of years now and our Reading Rent with Confidence scheme requires landlords in the scheme to meet a minimum energy efficiency standard.

READ MORE: Reading Greens attempt to triple budget for Winter Watch 

“There are also a number of advisory services on offer which are geared to helping residents in financial difficulty, including our ‘Money Matters’ website which  brings together a host of valuable free information to help residents improve their financial situation, including a benefit checker and a directory of local and national advice services available.

“The Council is additionally in the process of advertising for a Low Carbon Housing Project Manager to co-ordinate our work in this vital area and help us access and manage future funding opportunities to help residents facing higher energy bills.”