Climate Change Action

Up until now I have only heard in passing about the Green Deal and i would suggest that this is something the government needs to worry about. If even energy and climate nerds don't know your big new policy you probably have some work to do. So it's just as well they are considering a major publicity drive.

The Green Deal is apparently a provision in the recent UK Energy Bill and is basically a loan scheme aimed at overcoming the large upfront costs of energy efficiency measures, with the loan repayments expected to be lower than the savings on energy bills generated (details here).

It sounds like a promising idea and as such i hope very much that the press release i was sent recently docent prove to be right about the government trying to scrimp on assessment. The whole premise of this scheme is that actual savings will be made by improving energy efficiency of buildings, this certainly can be the case if installations are carried out with care and quality assurance. However Green Deal Consulting have pointed out that if the government sticks to it's neo-liberal orthodoxy where everything is left to the market, there is every likelyhood of assurance being carried out in a rushed tick box manner. This will no doubt be quickly noted by installers of efficiency measures who may then start cutting corners:

“If we are not careful, this will go the same way as the energy assessments needed for house sales and we could end up with a price war that brings the whole scheme to a grinding halt. Once again the Government is failing to show leadership....All the Government has said is they want fees to be determined by the market to enable flexibility. This is no way to run a scheme like this because the energy assessors are required to conduct a really thorough, un-rushed and detailed analysis of each premises so that a proper needs assessment is arrived at. Without this accurate assessment the energy savings could be wildly out, and the customer will have to make up the shortfall. It is vital that the customer is fully protected or they will find themselves out of pocket within months.”

Green Deal Consulting MD Andy Wynter.