Leeds City Council, part of the Better Homes Yorkshire initiative to retrofit 12,000 homes via the Green Deal and ECO programmes, has called for the Green Deal to be replaced as matter of urgency as it’s left holding crisis meetings over the future of its planned work programme.
Better Homes Yorkshire was targeting £20m of energy efficiency improvements at council-owned, privately rented and owner-occupied homes, delivered via contractors Willmott Dixon and Keepmoat.
But after the government abruptly terminated its support last week, the £150m Green Deal Home Improvement Fund is now to close and there will be no further support for the Green Deal Finance Company.
Better Homes Yorkshire had been offering owner occupiers measures financed via Green Deal loans, but this option will no longer be available. Likewise, a planned initiative to engage private landlords in upgrading their homes at no upfront cost will no longer be possible.
"This is yet another U-turn which leaves individuals and communities in limbo. We have already heard from landlords in Cross Green who are concerned about how this will impact on the work to transform their private rented properties."
Councillor Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council
Meanwhile, some council tenants had been benefiting from external wall insulation financed via the GDHIF, but the two contractors are now likely only to be able to offer tenants cavity wall insulation funded by the utility companies via the diminishing ECO programme.
Councillor Richard Lewis, the executive member for regeneration, transport and planning, said that councils and the industry urgently needed a replacement for the Green Deal programme.
Acknowledging the imperfections in the system, he said: “No one was going to defend the most recent Green Deal scheme. Higher interest rates than the high street and fears over what happens when homes are sold were never going to capture the public’s imagination. It’s no surprise take up has been so low.
“This is yet another U-turn which leaves individuals and communities in limbo. We have already heard from landlords in Cross Green who are concerned about how this will impact on the work to transform their private rented properties.
“What we do know is that there is a real need for green investment in all types of homes, from council properties to privately rented or owned homes. Not everyone can afford investments, even when this may save them money in the long run. Cutting a scheme with no immediate replacement smacks of a real failure to understand what is required to create better, warmer homes.
“A new, better scheme is needed now, not after an interminably long review. This will be one that seeks to positively and quickly allow investment in making homes more energy efficient, to cut fuel poverty. We are keen to work to get a more suitable replacement in place as soon as possible.”
The idea of borrowing for green modifications from future savings in energy costs was a great one. It was using potential money savings which simply wouldn’t be saved without the modifications, so in essence was “free money” regardless of the interest charges.
In my experience the problem came from the limited amount of contractors who were willing to do the work and the very expensive charges for the work, when a lot of people, especially landlords, can get the work done a lot cheaper with their regular tradesmen. I think the answer would be to introduce a system like the Building Control system, where you pay a submission fee and any work you get done can be monitored for compliance, then people could borrow from future savings but the figures would be far less through our usual workforce.
I can actually do the work myself as a multi trader, but there is no provision for people like me to take advantage of the Green Deal. I was quoted over £4000 to put a combi boiler with rads in a 1 bed flat, that I have since had a quote for £1800.
Before the Green Deal I put internal cavity wall insulation in one of my flats for about £1200 that would have cost several thousand from a tradesman. There was no way of me getting this done on GD, yet I would have willingly converted wherever I needed to if I could have had the costs through the GD.