Energy and climate change minister, Greg Barker, has promised that the government will unveil new measures to “inject more momentum” into the Green Deal over the following weeks.
Speaking at the UK Green Building Council's ‘Towards Green Deal 2.0’ event, Barker revealed that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) would be announcing a range of improvements to the Green Deal “over the coming weeks”.
The range of measures will include the ability to complete a Green Deal finance plan in one day as well other planned “adjustments” to Green Deal finance. Barker also said that the department will release new details on the homeowner’s energy efficiency rebate.
In addition, Barker confirmed that DECC would be carrying out a “substantial” marketing campaign to raise awareness of the scheme which would include “messages to catalyse action on the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive launch”.
Reflecting on the first year of the Green Deal, Barker hit back at the Green Deal’s critics who labelled the scheme disappointing after figures revealed that just 626 Green Deal plans were live by December 2013.
Barker said: “The Green Deal is a world-first and long-term initiative designed to upgrade the energy efficiency of Britain’s homes.
“The most ambitious home improvement programme since the Second World War. But it is exactly that, a home improvement programme, not just a programme to shift finance plans.
“Today we announced new figures that show over a 129,000 assessments have been completed until the end of November and research published last week shows that 81% of those households have installed, are in the process or intend to install at least one measure.
“Of those who have had measures installed, 87% are satisfied with the quality of the measures installed.”
The energy and climate change minister also talked up the supply chain that the scheme has built up since its launch with more than 125 Green Deal providers registered, over 2,900 registered advisors and around 2,300 organisations approved to install measures under the scheme.
The state of the Green Deal and the introduction of the domestic RHI will be discussed in the upcoming Solar Energy UK roadshows, which will visit six locations across the UK in February.
Full details and booking information can be found on the Solar Energy UK roadshows website.