This week saw the introduction of yet another incentive to try and attract homeowners to the Green Deal. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey announced that as of June this year, people in England and Wales would be eligible to claim up to £7,600 from the new Grean Deal Home Improvement Fund. This is designed to limit the cost of having any works done.
Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, said: “The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund is another way the government is making it simpler and cheaper for people to stay warm and improve their homes.
“I want households across the country to benefit from more energy efficient homes and reduced bills through the Green Deal, and that is what the new home incentive fund will do.”
One Last Attempt
This is probably the last ditch attempt at making this quite frankly pointless government flagship scheme work. They are using the rather blunt method of giving people even more money in the hope that it suddenly sparks an interest. Unfortunately, the time in which this scheme could have been worth something has now well and truly passed. Poor planning, no funding for public advertisement and launched in one of the worst recession in the history of the UK economy, the Green Deal was never going to work.
Up to press, you can count the number of window installations done via the Green Deal one one hand. Now that truly is pathetic number, given the hard work bodies like the GGF did to get windows included within Green Deal in the first place. However I do believe that there is a probably political motive behind this last ditch attempt to jump start life into the scheme.
As we all know the European Elections are just days away (22nd May) and the main three political parties stand to be dealt a hell of a blow by the smaller, more independent parties, especially UKIP. The main parties will be using these elections as a tester, looking forward to how next year’s general election is going to go. They know it’s not going to be pretty. In all likelihood there probably won’t be a Lib Dem/Conservative coalition next year. This means that whatever government is formed next, they are going to be having a clear out of all the expensive and failed schemes. Green Deal is likely to be one of them. This may be a last attempt to save a Liberal Democrat policy from being shelved.
There has been simply no advantage from Green Deal other than to those running large council contracts doing home renovations. The normal residential market is practically untouched. The Government says it could take 20 years for the scheme to really bed in a become successful. But is a time period of that long workable in a modern age where everything happens so quickly? No.
The Government has also tried to claim that even if new windows and doors don’t see a benefit from Green Deal, at least the awareness of what new windows and doors can do will be increased. Well no, that hasn’t happened either. I’ve not dealt with a single customer that has come and seen me and said “I saw the Green Deal advertised the other week and I’ve come in to buy new windows and doors”.
Remember those Home Information Packs (HIPs) a few years ago? They got scrapped pretty quickly. So will this.
Full Green Deal Coverage
May 2012
Government Wants Us To Have 25 Year Guarantees!
Here's something a bit ridiculous that seems to have been missed in all the fine print of the Green Deal. I was reading in this month's Windows Active on page 100 the article from Colin [...]
Open Letter To The GGF
First of all, you will have to excuse my spelling as I am typing this from my phone! As you will have noticed I have been plugging my campaign for windows and doors to have [...]
A Letter To Your Local MP
The title of this post sounds very dry I know, but it contains something we all need to be doing to make sure our industry gets a fair chance when the Green Deal comes to [...]
April 2012
Government In-Fighting Over Green Deal
It was revealed at the weekend that some very senior ministers within the Coalition Government has moved to block the Green Deal altogether, calling for it to be scrapped completely. The report can be found [...]
Consequential Home Improvements Makes It On Sky News
Sky News today has heavily featured the Government's new home improvement plans to force people into buying more home improvement measures. So, if a customer wants a new conservatory or windows and doors, they may [...]
First Green Deal Providers Announced
Yesterday on April 4th, the first 22 organizations taking part in the Green Deal were announced. They are: Ampere GDP Anglian Home Improvements BritishEco British Gas CarbonLow Group Carillion Empower Community Enact Energy E.ON Gentoo [...]
