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
March 2012
DECC: Green Deal To Be Postponed For 6 Months
A statement from Climate Change Minister Greg Barker has confirmed that the Green Deal is to be pushed back 6 months. With Secondary Legislation to be 'laid in early 2013'. I hate to say it, [...]
Green Deal Edging Towards 2013 Launch
An article published last week on the www.businessgreen.com website has explained that the slow movement by the big six energy companies is pushing the Green Deal towards a 2013 launch rather than this October. The [...]
February 2012
Will The Green Deal Be Ready For 2012?
The Green Deal has been hit by a number of massive setbacks over the past few months, by both independent research and the Government's own research body. The research has shown the both the Government, [...]
January 2012
>Green Deal Doomed To Fail
>The Green Deal has been on shaky ground ever since the details of the deal have been researched and found to be inconsistent at best. However, the Government's latest set of figures could spell the [...]
>Green Deal Hopefuls Show Poor Last Quarter Trading
>Argos down 8.8%. Thorntons down 4.2%. Halfords down 4.8%. Mothercare down 3%.Just yet another indication of how bad the retail sector has suffered over the last 12-18 weeks. Some have suffered so bad that they [...]
December 2011
>The Green Deal Will Fail
>The Guardian has published an article explaining how the Green Deal will significantly fail to meet up to the targets set by the Government.They claim that out of the 14 million households in need of [...]
