While the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has made another £70m available through the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF) the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) maintains that the fund does not have enough incentives for consumers wanting to install energy efficient glazing.
From midday, Monday 16 March, the scheme will open to new applications for the new release of funding, with up to £5,600 available to households in England and Wales to help with the cost of installing certain energy saving measures such as solid wall insulation, double glazing, boilers, cavity wall and floor insulation.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey, said:
“We’re helping families keep warmer for less – driving bills down by encouraging more competition between energy suppliers and making over one million homes more energy efficient. Households up and down the country are reaping the benefits of a warmer home thanks to the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund. And now, with more money available, thousands more can benefit.”
Nigel Rees, GGF Group chief executive, commented:
“Of course it is positive to see funding for homeowners wanting to make their properties more energy efficient but we still feel the incentives are not nearly enough for homeowners wanting to install glazing.”
DECC’s latest Green Deal statistics, published in February, show that out of 15,000 measures installed under the GDHIF, only 47 windows have been installed. Nigel Rees added:
“The scheme and funding appears to favour some types of energy efficiency work and not others such as glazing. The latest round of funding is a slight improvement but is not nearly enough to make a difference to homeowners and the replacement window industry.”
Speaking at Ecobuild last week, Ed Davey admitted that:
“the Green Deal hasn’t gone as planned or hoped for.” He went on to say that,
“While we’ve had just shy of half a million Green Deal assessments, with the majority resulting in people investing in home energy efficiency, the Green Deal Finance package itself hasn’t proved attractive.”
Mr Davey said the government’s chief construction advisor had been commissioned to look at better ways of triggering ‘innovation and deployment’ to encourage a greater uptake in energy efficiency measures, specifically solid wall insulation.
Nigel Rees added:
“It has taken a while but the government now appears to finally accept that their flagship initiative Green Deal has failed to deliver the results that DECC set over two years ago when the scheme was launched. We welcome Mr Davey’s comments about reviewing the entire scheme – something the GGF has called for over the last 18 months when the statistics were showing a poor uptake by homeowners. The GGF will be contacting The Green Deal Construction Board to offer to contribute to the Green Deal Review.”
