The Green Deal- Will it Work?

The Green Deal is a large part of the coalition government’s claim to be the “greenest government ever”. The idea behind it is simple: People won’t make green modifications to their homes, such as double glazing or loft insulation, because it costs too much money. In the long run, however, the modifications will actually save people money. However, as everyone is particularly skint right now, few people have the cash flow to shell out a lot of money now if they’ll only feel the benefits later. The solution is to offer people a loan to add these energy saving modifications to their homes, then make the loan repayments small than the amount of money they will actually be saving every month.

It’s a neat little solution, allowing people to get double glazing for their homes from top-end brands such as Anglian Windows and Everest Windows that will literally pay for themselves. The scheme is due to come into force in October this year. However there are those who are already criticising the scheme.

As the law stands, energy companies are legally obliged to enable customers to be more energy efficient.

David Kennedy, the Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change has said that: “The proposal is to take away that obligation and say, ‘let’s leave it to the market’. We think there is a significant risk in leaving it to the market, as that has never worked anywhere in the world and is unlikely to happen in the UK. We are talking about the transformation of the entire building stock of this country.”

The CCC says that instead of the Green Deal,, the government needs to continue to pressure energy companies into providing insulation for lofts and wall cavities using the new Energy Company Obligation (ECO). This would require energy companies to continue delivering energy efficiency improvements paid for with a levy on energy bills, usually about £50 for an average household.

The Coalition, however, are instead using the ECO to try and combat fuel poverty and so-called “hard to treat” homes, such as older buildings without cavity walls.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change is arguing that, to begin with, the scheme must target older homes, with a spokesperson saying: “Once the green deal is in place we envisage there’ll be plenty of cost effective offers on loft and cavity wall insulation, making it easy for households to install with no need for any subsidy. So we want to use the Energy Company Obligation to target older, harder to treat homes and provide extra help for the fuel poor.”