Green Deal ‘Failed To Achieve Value For Money’
- April 18, 2016|
- News|
- admin-malbern
No doubt homeowners came across the Green Deal when looking into double glazing in Tameside and elsewhere – but what they might not yet know is that an investigation into the scheme has concluded that it has failed to achieve value for money.
The Green Deal first launched back in 2013, serving as a government scheme to provide loans to households to help them fund energy-efficient home improvements. This loan was then intended to be paid back through savings made on energy bills.
But now the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the scheme – which has so far cost taxpayers some £240 million – has in fact not generated any extra energy savings because the way the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) designed and implemented the project did not convince people that energy-efficient measures were actually worth paying for.
“The [DECC’s] ambitious aim to encourage households to pay for measures looked good on paper, as it would have reduced the financial burden of improvements on all energy consumers. But in practice, its Green Deal design not only failed to deliver any meaningful benefit, it increased suppliers’ costs – and therefore energy bills – in meeting their obligations through the [Energy Company Obligation] scheme,” head of the NAO Amyas Morse said.
Double glazed windows, LED lighting and draught-proofing your doors are three quick and easy ways to make energy-efficient improvements at home. If you’re keen to keep your bills to a minimum while reducing your carbon footprint, this could well be the way to go.
