Green Deal or Green Spiel?

This year will see the implementation of the governments new energy efficient initiative known as The Green  Deal. The Guardian says it is "to be the biggest home energy program of modern times....set to be a monumental year for Britain". The deal is being put in place to tackle our increasingly expensive to heat housing stock and will "unleash real competitive forces in the energy efficient market". British homes are amongst the most energy inefficient in Europe with over 4.1 million still; living in poverty and over 8 million solid wall homes with no realisably affordable solution for energy efficient insulation. Just from looking at the figures the outlook seems rather bleak and depressing to say the least but that, according to Greg Baker, the Minister for Climate Change is what this deal is here to rectify. Some people feel this is a deal for the middle classes and that ultimately the poor will pick up the bill and be further squeezed for what little they have but Mr. Baker says this is "simply not true" and the Green Deal is there "support the poorest and most vulnerable house holds, as well as those in properties which are most difficult to improve".

Already set for 2018 there is a bill stating that it will be against the law or any landlord to rent out a property that has an Energy Performance Certificate (these have been compulsory from 2008 and measure the energy efficiency of a property in relation to cost of heating and amount of carbon emissions produced ) with a grading of F and G, G being the lowest and A being the highest. This for me is a welcome move but having to wait six years for its implementation seems a little far off and with governmental changes over this period of time could be nothing more paying lip service to pressure from the green movement.

When the Green Deal kicks off the government will be putting up £200 Million to provide introductory offers to help kick start the process. The idea is to result in an ultimately more competitive and fair energy efficiency market, helping with a range of long lasting and affordable improvements to properties and overall to our collective well being as a country and bring us in line with the rest of Europe, hopefully removing our tarnished image as the dirty stain on the bottom of Europe's trousers.

 As we know the government withdrew a large proportion of its funding for the domestic and commercial solar industry not long after it was granted, Mr. Cameron stating that it was meant only as a boost to the industry and not a permanent fixture, something which it had been sold as initially if my memory serves me correctly. Either way, lets hope this new initiative takes off and the vision of Mr. Baker is realised sooner, rather than later.

For the full Guardian article visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/17/green-deal-home-energy