There has been an angry response to news that the sums available to landlords under the government’s Green Deal has been cut back, with immediate effect.

As from this week the government has enforced reductions on the overall total amount of funding  that landlords can receive from the Green Deal. So instead of  the original amount of £7,600 that was available up till Thursday last week (24th July), landlords can now only receive £5,600. Biggest hit in the reduction was the grant for outer wall insulation and why exactly has this come to hand ? The government is citing the reason for the cuts as being that the scheme became too popular.

Landlords used to be able to receive up to £6,000 for the installation of solid wall insulation, the figure has now been dropped to £4,000.

Anyone hoping to get help with flue gas recovery units will have to act now, as this improvement will be taken off the list of approved measures from August 5th.

Figures show that the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund has surpassed the £50 million mark being given in vouchers to those homeowners making improvements to their properties or homes.

The Chairman for a landlord association said “Just as the Green Deal looks like it will finally succeed, the government seems determined to sabotage its own policy.

“We  made a strong case to DECC for the incentive payment for solid wall insulation projects to be set at a level that makes financial sense for the landlord to proceed with energy efficiency improvements to a property. We used data from the applications to our Green Deal service to justify our call for it to be set at or £6,000 and the success of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund so far shows that this was the right level.”

 

The private rented sector contains large numbers of solid wall properties and the cuts could mean that many landlords will not be able or willing to invest in the insulation because of the significant cuts. This could mean that many properties will not be able to meet the new standards required for the energy efficiency scheme that have just been set by the DECC.

Richard Merrick, PIMS.co.uk said: " The government has  set the energy efficiency standards to meet the emissions targets. Surely it is in everybody's interests that the government stops the reductions to get as many houses using less resources in methods that are proven, rather than those that are wasteful and can be termed as an 'eye-sore'."