While the ECA said it broadly welcomed the strategy, published last week, it warned that the government’s focus on “market-led” strategy and lack of joined-up policy could “encourage a race-to-the-bottom approach”.
Andrew Eldred, the ECA’s director of workforce and public affairs, said: “Safe, high-quality electrical work needs to be done by electrically competent people. We know for a fact that our industry is ready to rise to the challenge of Net Zero, but a purely ‘market-led’ policy can lead to a race to the bottom on cost and a drop in quality follows.
“This will inevitably compromise the efficiency and safety of what gets installed.”
Eldred's comments come just days after Electrical Safety First - a charity dedicated to reducing fires, deaths and injuries arising from electricity - said that parties to a roundtable it hosted alongside the ECA had raised significant “potential safety issues”.
ESF would not expand further on these concerns, but...