Well, the much vaunted Green Deal; in Greg Barker MP’s words – a “revolution in the way we undertake energy efficiency improvements” has been launched in the UK.
Did you hear the trumpet fanfare? The drums roll? The large scale promotion that was promised? No, us neither.
There was a front page article in the Guardian’s Money section on Saturday (click here: Apply to come in from the cold). Two of my favorite quotes are: “Inevitably, it is more complicated than that” when trying to explain the golden rule, and “what looks certain is that those signing up will have to shop around”. And then goes on to say that the GD will pay for some things and not others, that it may pay a proportion of the installation costs of some things and not others. That some GD providers will charge typical interest rates of 7.5% but “this could change”.
Also – every installer will have to be accredited, to avoid cowboys – well thats ok then. There is also going to be the issue of the Golden Rule attempting to fit a pattern onto people living in their homes, which is often completely different one house to the next. A house with 2 adults and 2 kids uses more electricity and gas than a single person living alone. Some people like to hang out in their shorts, others in socks and jumpers. How do model all of this effectively? Confused yet?….
All in all we think its a flawed policy, that simply doesn’t stack up for householders. Not only the issues already highlighted, but also – why would you borrow money at 7.5% when you could raise money on your mortgage to make improvements for 5%. This money will only be available for energy efficiency measures – but wouldn’t you want to combine it with other things? like a new kitchen/bathroom/decorating? So you will have to balance who is going to do which part of work? Is your local electrician accredited to install wireless heating controls under Green Deal? Can he do it – most probably, is he accredited?…hmmm Will the accredited ones want to charge more to pay for their training? Probably. More confusing? Definitely.
All in all – we feel there must be an alternative way to this system? Well we think we may have teamed up with another company who have got a great solution – www.bhesco.co.uk – at the moment we are trying to get the word out there and simply have people sign up to the mailing list for more information. By generating a large volume of local residents interested in an alternative to the Green Deal we have a solution that we thinks works better – redistributing the money that would normally be spent on paying the profits of corporations to the community we can help everyone to benefit. Visit the site and sign up today – join the community revolution.