Figures reveal extent of Green Deal failure

Ministers had said that they expected 10,000 households to have been signed up by now, so the initiative is proving somewhat slower to take root than they had envisaged.

A total of 1,612 households had Green Deal plans in progress as of the end of December.

Green Deal assessments actually declined 21% during December but the government attributed this to Christmas holidays.

Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, said that the scheme had “massively under-delivered”.

He said: “Improving the energy efficiency of our cold and draughty homes is the only way to permanently cut households’ spiralling energy bills and will be a major driver of economic growth. Government must make energy efficiency a top national infrastructure priority, as important as decisions on HS2 or aviation expansion.

“While the Green Deal is the cornerstone of the UK’s retrofit policy, it has so far massively under-delivered. Government has to step in to create incentives that encourage homes into taking action and be prepared to prioritise capital spending on energy efficiency. Underwriting the Green Deal – as government has done with Help to Buy - would provide a huge shot in the arm for the retrofit industry.”

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said that the Government had to try harder to broaden the appeal of its flagship energy-efficiency policy. Chief executive Brian Berry said: “It’s clear that the Green Deal simply has not achieved the desired results in its first full year, with the majority of SME installers and home owners failing to engage, and the financial package underpinning the scheme proving unattractive to most consumers.”

He said that consumers were not interested because of the limited appeal of the financial incentives being offered. “This in turn means that most small local builders are reluctant to spend their time and money becoming certified Green Deal installers, when the potential customer base is really still in its infancy.”

Mr Berry added: “The Government needs to accept that the Green Deal’s first year has been underwhelming at best. The single most effective measure to kick-start demand would be to reduce the rate of VAT from 20% to 5% on all domestic repair and maintenance work, including energy-efficiency improvements. This would be a real incentive to home owners across the board to think about getting a professional tradesperson in to quote on a variety of repair and maintenance projects.”

Green Deal in numbers

• 129,842 Green Deal assessments were lodged during 2013, the programme’s first year.
• The 12,388 Green Deal assessments in December was 21% lower than the 15,599 lodged in November.
• 1,612 households had Green Deal plans in progress at the end of December, compared to 1,478 at the end of November. Of these, 493 were ‘new’ (quote accepted), another 493 had moved to ‘pending’ (plan signed) and 626 were ‘live’ (all measures installed) – 39% of all plans.

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