Over 1,800 Green Deal assessments in first month

Contracts worth nearly £27m have been awarded through scheme

Over 1,800 assessments on homes and office buildings have been carried out by Green Deal providers since the scheme was launched at the start of the year.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released figures showing that, between the end of January and the end of February, 1,803 people had an assessment for a Green Deal package for their property carried out. Edward Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, says the scheme, which lets people take out loans to make energy efficiency improvements to their home, has gotten off to ‘an excellent start’.

Early figures do suggest that the Green Deal scheme is going well

(Image source - Which.co,uk)

‘We're seeing clear signs of a promising new market gathering momentum," he said. "In little more than a month, there have been 1,803 Green Deal assessments and that shows genuine interest from consumers. We have created the Green Deal to overhaul our inefficient housing stock and help people keep their homes warm, while also reducing their energy bills. And as the market builds and awareness of the Green Deal increases, I am confident that consumer interest will grow and grow’.

There were concerns that the Green Deal may fail, as experts claimed the scheme wouldn’t actually save people much money. There were also fears that the scheme hadn’t been widely advertised, as a poll held just days before its official launch found that 81% of people didn’t know what it was. Also, whilst these figures are encouraging, they don’t indicate how many of those who had assessments carried out actually went on to have the work carried out.

'Green Deal' won't work, experts warn

Flagship scheme ‘not guaranteed’ to save consumers money

The government’s ‘Green Deal’ home insulation project that launched today has faced criticism from experts who believe the scheme won’t achieve its goal of getting people out of fuel poverty.

Despite reassurance from government officials that the savings that will come with lower energy usage will outweigh the cost of the ‘green’ loans needed to install the energy-saving features, many experts believe that factors such as the interest rate of the loans (set at just under 7%), along with the cost of initial assessments of the property, set-up fees and operating charges, will put people off investing in the scheme. There are also worries that potential clients will be put off by the fact that the loan repayments are left with the house, meaning that someone moving into a property that has had energy-saving work done to it will have to take over the loan repayments.

The government's energy-saving scheme has been heavily criticised by experts

(Image source - www.bbacerts.co.uk)

Alan Milstein, chairman of the Residential Property Surveyors Association, said ‘For many consumers, taking on a green deal loan may not be the most cost-effective mechanism to fund any green improvements to their property. With early repayment penalties and the uncertainty surrounding how having a green deal loan attached to your property will impact on its future saleability, for many homeowners it may be advisable to look at alternative ways to fund energy efficiency measures’.

This news has put a dampener on the launch of the ‘Green Deal’, although according to a poll published last week, over 80% of people had never heard of the scheme.