Latest figures on Green Deal uptake from the government and the Green Deal Finance Company indicate that the heavily-criticised domestic retrofit programme is increasing its appeal to homeowners and tenants.
The government said that 29,018 Green Deal assessments were completed in June, the highest monthly total ever and up from 23,811 in May.
Meanwhile, the Green Deal Finance Company last week processed 348 applications for Green Deal plans worth a total of £1m, up from 267 applications the previous week, bringing the total number of applications to 3,808 and representing investment of £14m.
The GDFC, a not-for-profit organisation, attributed the spike in Green Deal plan applications to an increase in the number of SMEs offering the Green Deal to consumers. At present, 38 providers are actively selling plans across England, Wales and Scotland, with most plans valued between £1,000 and £7,000.
Commenting on the figures, Richard Twinn, policy & public affairs officer at the UK Green Building Council, told CM: “This is very good news for the Green Deal, which has been very slow to pick up over the past 18 months. Over the last two months in particular more providers have been coming onto the market and the message is also getting out to consumers.
“One of the big barriers last year seemed to be that consumers would go looking for Green Deals but there were very few active providers in many areas. In addition, the process of applying to be able to offer finance was previously very complex, but the GDFC have been able to refine things and a lot more providers are coming on board as a result.”
"One of the big barriers last year seemed to be that consumers would go looking for Green Deals but there were very few active providers in many areas. In addition, the process of applying to be able to offer finance was previously very complex."
Referring to the DCLG figures on the increase in Green Deal assessments, Twinn played down the impact on the figures of the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund, a £120m a year government grant scheme launched at the start of June to enable homeowners to claim cashback on energy-saving improvements made under the Green Deal.
He said: “Although it may have played a part, the fund wasn’t the main factor affecting the figures. Green Deal plans have been growing steadily over past five to six months.”
The Home Improvement Fund has proved extremely popular with consumers, so much so that the government was forced to scale it back this week after it received applications for the first £50m of funding, out of a total £120m, within just six weeks.
Figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed that 7,925 cashback vouchers totalling £43.5m had been issued from the fund in the six weeks to 21 July, with a further 4,295 voucher applications received.
In response, the government said it would lower the amount of cashback home owners could get for installing solid wall insulation, the most expensive measure supported by the scheme, from £6,000 to £4,000. DECC said the change would take effect today, 25 July.
It also said flue gas heat recovery units would no longer be eligible for cashback under the scheme from 5 August.
Twinn said that the early changes to the cashback scheme were slightly disappointing. “It is a bit of a concern that DECC has had to make changes to the scheme so early, although they did flag up previously that they would review the amount of funding made available for the year once £50m in applications was reached. The cut to the amount available for solid wall insulation is disappointing, as this is a very popular option for consumers, it’s now at the same level as was available under the previous Green Deal cashback scheme.
“However, the fact that there has been such a big consumer response to this is very encouraging and indicates that £120m might actually get spent on energy efficiency improvements this year. There was a lot of criticism of the previous cashback scheme, which made £125m available, but only around £6m ever got spent.”
