Mixed Reaction to Scrapping of Green Deal

The Department of Energy and Climate Change have announced that funding for the Green Deal Finance Company, which loans money to households for improving energy efficiency, will be cut off. This follows concerns about industry standards and the low take-up of the scheme.

The scheme offered incentives to landlords to make energy efficiency improvements to their buy-to-let properties, and were seen to be a crucial step towards getting all private rented properties to meet the deadlines for acquiring the minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating of an E.

It is for this reason that ARLA have come out against the scrapping of the Green Deal. Managing Director David Cox said: The Green Deal allowed landlords to make their properties energy efficient at no upfront cost to themselves, and without the funding, how can these regulations be implemented?”

From January 2013, when the scheme was launched, to the end of June 2015, only 10,000 properties had made improvements using Green Deal finance, with an additional 5,600 plans currently in progress.

Consumer group Which? reacted favourably to the scheme’s termination, saying that the government “can’t keep throwing money at a scheme that has spectacularly failed to take off.”

Although no plans for a replacement scheme have been announced, energy secretary Amber Rudd said: “It’s now time for the building industry and consumer groups to work with us to make new policy and build a system that works.”

Back to news