COUNCILLORS in Powys have received letters from a group that claims that “widespread fraud” happened with the recent Eco2 boiler grant scheme.

The letter sent by the Powys Plumbing Group (PPG) is now being looked at by the council’s legal department.

Powys County Council’s (PCC) Health, Care and Housing Scrutiny Committee was due to look at “proposition for the adoption of Eco3, the successor to Eco2, and provide recommendations to the Cabinet.

But councillors who had received the letter decided to defer the issue and also asked for Eco3’s implementation to be postponed until the letter had been investigated.

In their email to councillors PPG explain that they were set up to represent the interests of both large and small plumbing and heating businesses.

They say that they have already met with council staff to discuss the flaws in the PCC’s version of the recent ECO2 scheme.

They believe the council’s proposals for the ECO3 scheme would have “devastating consequences” for hundreds of local businesses, their employees and the Powys economy if implemented in its current format.

The scheme is supposed to help vulnerable households living in fuel poverty cut their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions by installing energy saving measures such as insulation and high efficiency boilers.

Funded by energy companies, to qualify for the scheme households, should have an income of less than £21,000.

PPG believes the main reasons why Eco2 was susceptible to fraud are:

Eco Flex Agents work for private companies who have access to the funding – PPG claim they focussed on “maximising profits” and ignored the “schemes objectives”.

More robust vetting procedures should have been in place to stop EcoFlex agents offering free boilers to households who did not qualify for the scheme.

Simon Inkson, head of housing, said that the letter contents would be investigated and that implementation of Eco3 scheme could be postponed until later in the year.