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The chief of energy giant Centrica has attacked the government鈥檚 拢1.3bn Energy Company Obligation scheme, designed to increase the roll-out of insulation and energy efficiency measures to homes across the UK.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, said the Green Deal鈥檚 sister scheme ECO, was 鈥渃omplicated鈥� and 鈥渆xpensive to administer鈥�.

鈥淲e want to sit down with the government and see whether this is actually the most cost-effective way of reducing customers鈥� carbon emissions [and] whether it can be changed to bring down costs,鈥� he said.

Laidlaw said the problem with the scheme was that the 鈥渓ow-hanging fruit鈥� of efficiency improvements had already been picked under the previous CERT and CESP insulation schemes.

His criticisms follow similar concerns from the boss of Npower.

Simon Stacey, managing director of energy services at Npower, told the FT that ECO had high costs attached because it was a challenge to find enough properties that qualified for the scheme.

He also blamed low take-up of the Green Deal. 鈥淏ecause of that, energy suppliers are having to take up the slack by implementing more ECO measures,鈥� he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said there was 鈥渘o hard evidence鈥� that the scheme cost energy suppliers more than 拢1.3bn a year 鈥� Npower estimates it is costing nearer 拢1.8bn.

He added that comparing the cost of ECO with the previous CERT and CESP schemes was 鈥渟imply nonsensical鈥�.

鈥淭he scheme are completely different in design, and the carbon opportunities in the real world have changed hugely over recent years,鈥� he said.