UPDATE: Please note if you have GDHIF vouchers already, they are unaffected. You have until the expiry date on the voucher to get the work done and claim your funding.
Amber Rudd, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary announced today that no more Green Deal finance plans will be written by the Green Deal finance company – this signals the end of The Green Deal.
The Green Deal has been running since February 2013 and has helped thousands of households get energy saving measures installed. Unlike previous schemes in the UK that have allowed households to get energy saving measures installed for free, the Green Deal moved away this model, instead offering finance based on the expected energy savings that the energy saving measure provides. As a concept it worked well, but unfortunately in practise it was too complicated and the set up fees and interest rate was simply too high for it ever to be successful.
In the 30 or so months that the Green Deal was running, only 10,000 homes had opted to take out Green Deal finance and it was quite telling that the majority of these Green Deal plans were solar panels, not the normal energy saving measures you would expect – cavity wall insulation, boilers, double glazing and that sort of thing.
What the closure of the Green Deal means is that people looking to get help to cover the cost of new energy saving measures will now have to seek other means to get these installed. This announcement will have no impact on Green Deal plans that are already in place.
Over the past couple of years we have done thousands of these Green Deal assessments and the feedback has generally been that while the surveys themselves are useful in terms of the energy saving advice provided, very few of our clients have then gone to take up the Green Deal finance offer – instead opting to self fund the measures.
The GDHIF grant has also gone for good!
It was also announced this morning that there will be no more Green Deal Home Improvement Fund – this was the grant system put in place to help drive up take of the Green Deal. This was released 3 times over the last year and was extremely popular leading to a boom and bust situation where the energy saving retrofit market went mad for just a couple of weeks in the immediate aftermath of the voucher release, but then fell flat as people waited for the next release.
A new Energy Saving Scheme in the pipeline?
Amber Rudd was very keen to stress this is not the end of the energy saving in the residential sector – instead the Government will work with the building industry and consumer groups on a new value-for-money approach.
We are very hopeful that new legislation will be put in place to help people who need some sort of financial assistance to help improve the energy efficiency of their home – although it is unlikely that this will be done in time for this winter.
Get a Great Deal not a Green Deal (Sorry!)
At TheGreenAge we have a huge installer network across the UK who can help install quality energy saving products at great prices – so give us a call if you need a great deal on a new boiler, you have insulation requirements (including cavity, loft and solid wall), you need new double glazing or you want to install a new renewable heating / electricity generating system.
Give us a call on 0208 144 0897 to see if we can help!
So, what happens to all the people like myself that have spent thousands of pounds putting themselves through courses to gain the relevant qualifications to advise on the green deal?
The government promised us this was the next big thing. That it would be around forever, (or at least the next 35 years). I have just been told that all the customers that I have seen over the last 2 weeks and have not yet been accepted into Green deal finance wont be, therefore I wont get paid. So, as well as totally shafting me out of approximately £7000.00, the government have also left thousands of customers potentially thinking they are getting free solar panels. Would it have hurt to give a few weeks notice? Or is that too much to ask. I guess its the little people at the bottom of the ladder who lose out again. SCANDALOUS!!!
Hi Karl,
Giving notice on such a thing would surely have exactly the same impact – no one would bother getting the reports since they are now worthless (except for RHI applications and for the advice the assessor provides during the visit).
I’m not very happy about this as 2 weeks ago I paid for an energy assessment which was a waste of money as now I can’t get funding for external wall insulation!!