The new Green Deal scheme
Britain’s housing stock is some of the oldest in the world and the lack of energy saving measures in many homes reflect this.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change’s Green Deal is geared towards making Britain’s homes more energy efficient without incurring extra costs to homeowners.
How does it Work?
An impartial advisor assesses how efficiency can be boosted in your home. The improvements are then financed and conducted by Green Deal providers .
The improvements are installed at no up front cost. Instead the cost of the improvement are added on to energy bills , which will be considerably lower thanks to the energy saving improvements.
Savings can be as much as £115 a year when having cavity walls insulated, or around £45 a year when installing loft insulation, according to DECC
The scheme’s ‘Golden Rule’ promise means that the savings made should always be high enough to ‘cancel out’ the loan repayments, so that no-one ends up out of pocket as a result of signing up to the Deal.
No Upfront Payments
One of the best things about the Green Deal is that homeowners don’t have to pay anything upfront for the improvements made to the property. Everything is collected after installation via the energy bills.
Carbon Emissions
One of the main thrusts of the scheme is reducing Britain’s carbon footprint to reach the target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.
British homes and businesses waste nearly £3 billion of energy every year. By bringing homes up to scratch, this initiative will have a significant impact on the UK’s emissions.
Sign Up and be Counted
It’s important for homeowners to remember that they need to be informed and signed up to the initiative in order to benefit.
Customers wishing to get in on the deal need to request a Green Deal assessment for their home.
What do you think? Does it sound like a good (green) deal to you?
Thanks for highlighting this, it’s worth knowing about. I may well consult one of their assessors as I definitely need more loft insulation and I’m sure this house would be improved massively by external wall insulation, but I suspect the latter isn’t included in the scheme. It’s got to be worth asking*, though, as it would be too expensive to do myself (unlike loft insulation, which I should just do anyway).
The structure of the scheme does make me a little uneasy, though. In times like these, when so many people (and countries) are suffering from debt, the idea of taking out a 25 year loan goes against the grain, but I suppose the days of grants are over. Since the repayments are made through the energy supplier, does that mean I’m tied to the same energy supplier for 25 years?
My house is heated with wood, but I can’t imagine that firewood suppliers are part of this scheme. Maybe they’d put it on my electricity bill, but that wouldn’t be reduced by the energy savings, so I don’t know how they’d apply their ‘golden rule’ that the savings must be greater than the repayments. They say they want the scheme to be available to ‘almost everyone’ – maybe I’ll be one of the people it’s not available to.
Also the legality of tying debt repayments to the property is curious. I bet that gets challenged by some house buyer a few years down the line!
*Actually, I just read a bit further: “The cost of the assessment will be included in the repayments on the deal” – perhaps I should find out more before booking an assessment.
The next sentence gives me an excuse not to get on with the insulation, though: “If you are considering any energy efficient measures for your home, such as insulation, it is advisable to wait until the launch of the Green Deal so that you can benefit from the scheme.”
Hmm, the more I look into this, the more doubts I have. In the end, I don’t really trust the government to do a good job of this.
There are currently companies offering free loft insulation and cavity wall insulation across much of the UK. Before paying out money, it would be worth looking into this to see if you are eligible. Although insulation is definitely good for the environment,unless you are in the habit of turning up the heating in your house very high I would be sceptical that savings would be as high as the figures suggested. Although heating costs are rising year by year, the amount we are spending on heating is not rising, because our income is not rising, and I assume that many people are in the same boat. Also, I would assume that there would be interest on the loan to take into account. I was surprised to see that they will charge for the assessment, as in my experience tradesmen generally come out free of charge to advise on what needs to be done and to give a quote. Therefore, even if you cannot get free insulation, it might be good to look around at what is available before committing to anything.
I was reading this in the Daily Telegraph yesterday , it seems to good to be true but it may be worth investigating, there must be a catch somewhere.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/property/british-gas-free-insulation/9482252/offer-free-home-insulation.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_BritishGas&utm_campaign=britishgas2508_2608_2708