AUDIO NEWS: Audit office slams failed government insulation scheme and plumbers fix problems with AI

Energy Company Obligation fiasco leaves 98% of houses needing remediation work, construction firms waste 5,500 productivity hours a year and plumbers in USA use ChatGPT to fix problems

The National Audit Office has exposed the almost total collapse of quality control in the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme.

A report published earlier this week revealed that the £4 billion programme designed to tackle fuel poverty has left over 30,000 homes now in need of remediation work.

The government auditors warned of widespread shoddy workmanship, safety risks and possible fraud.

In extreme cases poor workmanship has led to damp, mould and in some cases, electrical hazards and fire risks.

Ofgem and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero were both criticised for failing to detect fraud and widespread substandard work.

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European construction firms are losing over 5,500 productivity hours a year — that’s according to research from Milwaukee.

Although construction productivity improved by 10% between 2021 and 2023, almost 9 out 10 construction workers still complained of losing time due to equipment faults and breakages.

Nearly 40% of survey respondents also claimed they didn’t have the right equipment to improve productivity.

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Plumbers in America are taking ChatGPT out on the job with them.

Oak Tree Plumbing from Wisconsin has equipped its engineers with tablets loaded with ChatGPT, which are used to create invoices, work proposals and even ‘brainstorm’ how to address complicated plumbing problems.

Company president, Dan Callies told CNN that his team were “kind of amazed” with some of the answers the software came up with.

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