A committee made up of MP’s (The All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment) is urging the government to re-think its message about Green Deal. They feel that the government is not doing enough to make it financially attractive to landlords and homeowners and at the moment it is doomed to be a relative failure.

 

The committee has recently published its report:  “Re-energising the green agenda “into the workings of Green Deal and has made strong recommendations in how to turn the coalition’s flagship green scheme around.

"We certainly applaud the government for introducing the Green Deal, but we feel it is time to take another look at the detail, make it work for social housing, galvanise the schemes locally across the country and make financial incentives permanent," as stated in the report.

The major fear is that the Green Deal and Energy Companies Obligation will fail to deliver less carbon emissions reductions than its predecessor’s policies that it replaced.

 

The committee urges that the Green Construction Board must be given more responsibility in sending out messages to tenants, landlords and house owners as to define exactly what the Green Deal will mean and the advantages it offers them as it has not been made clear.

 

The Green Deal offers a home improvement loan and is only paid back when energy savings are made. The interesting thing about the loan is that it does not stay with the people who initially took out the loan but with the property, so any new homeowners or renters for that property, will have to continue with the repayments. Of course they “will benefit” from the work carried out before their residence.

Many critics have stated that the interest rate should be made more attractive for such a scheme to take off, as Green Deal is just not attracting a large take-up.

The report has suggested that a possible way to reduce the rate of interest would be to underwrite the finance as the government has actioned with new-build mortgages.  They also think that perhaps even introducing other added value incentives that could include council taxes linked to energy efficiency or stamp duty, could make Green Deal a more worthwhile proposition.