UK Government earmarks £200 million for ‘Green Deal’ initiative

The UK Government today earmarked £200 million towards new and additional funding for a limited-time introductory offer to kick start the initial stages of the offer to Green Deal energy efficiency scheme

The announcement follows the consultation on the Green Deal that was launched by the Government yesterday.

With bills rising because of rocketing global energy prices, the Government wants to see as many people as possible benefiting when the Green Deal hits the high street next year.

“I can announce today that as part of the Autumn Statement we will provide £200m of funding for new and additional support to enable a special time-limited ‘introductory offer’ for the Green Deal,” said Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.

The funding announcement follows the commitment made by the Chancellor in Budget 2011, in which he said that the Government was committed to the success of the Green Deal and will act to encourage and incentivise take-up so that the Green Deal will appeal to households, businesses and prospective providers alike. The Green Deal framework will be launched from October 2012.

Yesterday’s consultation outlined the three big benefits of the groundbreaking scheme. Firstly, every British home and business will be able to install packages of energy saving technologies such as insulation at no upfront cost making their property warmer and cosier straight away, with repayments made over time out of the energy savings. Strict standards will be put in place to prevent consumers being ripped off by cowboys. 

The second benefit will see a new requirement on energy companies to provide support with an estimated value of £1.3 billion a year to ensure everyone is able to benefit from the Green Deal – no matter their income or the type of house they live in. Additional help will be available to ensure the fuel poor get better boilers and fix draughty homes while subsidy will also be provided to help tackle homes that are hard to insulate, including solid wall homes.

Lastly, the Green Deal is expected to kick start around £14 billion of private sector investment over the next decade – with new safeguards to help small family firms as well as big high street names get involved in the Green Deal. The Green Deal could support at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015.

Further details of how this funding will be used will be announced next year as the Government assesses how best to stimulate early take up.

 

Image 01: Ell Brown | Flickr

Image 02: Paul Albertella | Flickr

Image 03: Paul Albertella | Flickr