The Government’s handling of the Green Deal has been described as a ‘dog’s dinner’ by those in the industry.
David Hunt warned that ministers risk squandering £20bn on the flagship scheme, by which home owners are to be encouraged to take out Green Deal loans to improve their property’s energy efficiency.
Hunt, who is director of Eco Environments in Liverpool, was speaking at the Energy Solutions event in London.
He called the implementation of the Green Deal – which officially launched this month – as ‘undercooked’, and said that others had described it as a ‘dog’s dinner’, ‘car crash’ and ‘farce’.
The first Green Deal loan agreements are due to go live in the New Year, but there has been constant criticism that the scheme has been under-promoted.
Comments
What I don't understand is the Heating plumbing industry is getting so regulated, as its MCS this, GREEN DEAL that, RHI.
As a small company I just can't my head around how much all stuff costs to become an approved installer. The red tape and paperwork trail we guys are having to go though nowadays, I think is killing the small guys like me, because its a lot of hassle.
Can someone tell if all the employees of the larger company's have to be individually registered, or do they only have to pay one company fee.
If this is a case then straight away the big company's are at an unfair advantage over small company's like me.
The Green Deal Plan is going through many doubts and criticism recently but the homeowners must realize that they will be benefited by this deal from every angle. They will save huge amount of money on their energy bills which is otherwise not possible. Therefore, they should make up their minds to be a part of the deal.
Don't worry, it will all be addressed when they link council tax charges to your homes energy efficiency rating.
The killer for me on this scheme is that anyone taking it up has to pay a significant level of interest on the deferred loan, so where's the saving compared with taking out a bank loan and doing it yourself? Yes, the repayments are spread over a much longer period, but that also means you and future owners of the property will be paying the hefty interest charges for much longer too. If the Government can borrow money via gilts at 1-1.5%, why are the charges made by the energy companies at 6.9%?
The scheme should have been promoted much more aggressively and the Government should have considered introducing an element of compulsion, if only at a pilot level initially. Landlords are being attacked once again and forced to upgrade their properties to EPC Level E or higher, so why not the much larger number of domestic homeowners as well?
The whole scheme is a complete nonsense. When first muted it was going to be alll singing all dancing 'no up front cost' I am a DEA in training to be a GDA and let me tell you whatever the small amount of jobs covered under the 'Golden Rule' mostly this is about low cost finance for the still restricted bigger jobs reccomended by the EPC. The public will be dissapointed when I turn up and the providers couldn't care less about most of the rubbish I'm meant ot be asking when on site. No one is going to pay me to give advice unless I'm employed by one of the providers, selling their goods. Which incidently will probably be available cheaper elswhere.