Just five out of a total 63 accredited Green Deal providers have been given approval to offer long-term finance to consumers, according to Mark Bayley, chief executive of The Green Deal Finance Company – and two of these were cleared this week.
Writing on the DECC website earlier this week, Bayley said that delays with the “on-boarding process” meant that of the 46 Green Deal providers undergoing assessment to draw down the finance, just three had completed the process and were able to offer deals to consumers.
However, by Thursday, when DECC issues the latest statistical update on Green Deal, the figure had been revised upwards to five.
Read news, 24 May: Green Deal is being ‘left to fizzle out’
The Green Deal Finance Company is a not-for-profit organisation set up to provide low-cost finance to Green Deal provider firms. It has put together a £244m funding package from stakeholders including energy companies, Green Deal providers Carillion, Kingfisher and InstaGroup, DECC and the Green Investment Bank. But Bayley admitted that a number of “snagging” issues had “slowed the process down”.
The admission helps explain why only four Green Deal finance plans have so far been signed by consumers since the scheme’s launch in January, with a further 241 households confirming they would like to proceed with financing. This compares with a total of 38,259 Green Deal assessments of UK homes completed up to June 16.
DECC’s update shows that the Green Deal Cashback scheme, set up to incentivise interest in the Green Deal by allowing home owners to claim money back on energy saving improvements, has had moderate levels of interest from households. So far £263,452 in cash back payments have been made to households, out of the £125m made available.
On a more positive note, under the Energy Company Obligation, a scheme set up to fund energy-saving improvements on low-income households, provisional figures showed that up to the end of April there were 81,798 measures installed on 72,525 properties accounting for a total £131m of ECO finance.
Of this sum, 56% went on loft insulation, 33% on cavity wall insulation and 10% on boiler upgrades.
Industry leaders have been disappointed by the Green Deal’s slow take up. In an open letter co-ordinated by the UK Green Building Council, a cross section of chief executives from housing, energy, finance and construction companies urged the three main parties to collaborate to address “major concerns” with current retrofit policy.
Paul King, chief executive of UK-GBC, said: “It is obviously disappointing that more Green Deal assessments have not been turned into finance plans, and it shows just how crucial additional incentives are to drive take up. But we simply cannot let this fail – retrofitting the UK’s housing stock is too important for reducing energy bills, improving health, creating jobs in the construction sector and avoiding costs of new generating capacity – and no one has a credible alternative.”
Reacting to the Green Deal uptake figures, director at environmental consultancy WSP David Symons said: “Many commentators have been quick to deride the Green Deal, but the reality is that today’s figures show a new scheme that is at last getting underway. The figure of 38,000 Green Deal Assessments is a reasonable start, but before we get too excited, this only represents a tiny 0.1% of the UK’s housing stock. Government will need to keep a close eye on uptake over the coming months, amending the scheme where necessary and importantly, not hide behind political spin and dogma.”
