Green Deal to roll out £14 billion for energy improvements

Published by Julien Tremblin for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Environment

The Green Deal will roll-out £14 billion worth of private sector investment in home energy improvements over the next decade, it was announced yesterday.

A consultation on the measures has been published this week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The Green Deal will allow landlords to install energy saving technologies at no upfront cost and repay the loan through a surcharge on energy bills over 25 years.

Secretary of State Chris Huhne has announced the move would help create 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015. DECC claimed that the average household energy bill in 2020 is expected to be 7 per cent, or £94 lower, “than without energy and climate policies”.

An additional £1.3 billion a year is expected from energy companies to bring improvements to vulnerable and hard-to-insulate homes.

Mr Huhne also explained that up to £150 in cash back “could be” available for homes taking out a Green Deal – to be funded through private sector Green Deal finance – as part of efforts to make the move as attractive as possible.

Chris Huhne said: “The Green Deal is about putting energy consumers back in control of their bills and banishing Britain’s draughty homes to the history books. By stimulating billions of pounds of private sector investment, the Green Deal will revolutionise the way that we keep our homes warm, making them cosier, more efficient – and all at no upfront cost.

“The Green Deal is also a massive business opportunity for firms up and down Britain, helping to power the economy and creating jobs. From one-man bands and local authorities, to the big supermarkets and DIY stores, we want as many providers getting involved as possible because that’s what will give consumers the best deal.”

“There are certainly costs to replacing our ageing energy infrastructure with modern, clean power stations, and we take very seriously any impact of our policies on what consumers and businesses pay. We’ve repeatedly taken steps to reduce this – by removing some planned levies on bills and making others more cost effective and within budget.

“But a crucial – and too often ignored – priority of our whole strategy is to reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes.”

According to Sustainable Homes, an approximate 30 per cent of the countries CO2 emissions come from homes with another 10 per cent coming from buildings. The proposed Green Deal is expected to help protect property owners from rising energy bills.

The Green Deal framework will be launched from October 2012.

The National Insulation Association has welcomed the deal. Chief Executive Neil Marshall said: “The Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation have the potential to transform the energy efficiency of our housing stock and we will be carefully considering the proposals set out in the consultation in the coming weeks and responding to these.”

NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: “We welcome the Government’s commitment of more funding to the Green Deal. Ensuring sustainable, energy efficient housing is critical; equally it is important that consumers are afforded the same kind of protection under the Green Deal as they currently receive with new homes. The Chief Secretary today recognised the important role NHBC could play in finding ways to ensure this happens and we look forward to working together with Government on this significant issue.

“This week has been a big week for housing, with the publication of the Government’s new Housing Strategy which, as the Chief Secretary acknowledged in his speech at the NHBC Annual Lunch, is ambitious. We hope it will be successful in delivering the hundreds of thousands of homes promised but, like much of the housing industry, we believe the path will be neither easy nor quick. It is therefore important that the Government is prepared to implement more measures if this new strategy does not work and today, the Chief Secretary indicated it would be willing to do so.”