Green Deal Guide

The UK Government's scheme known as the "green deal" is aimed at making Britain's housing stock more energy efficient. The UK Green Deal www.greendealadvisersuk.com

The scheme is focused on several areas of home energy saving measures most notably:

Loft Insulation - top up for your insulation in roof spaces

Cavity Wall Insulation - wall cavity's can be filled using insulating materials

Solid Wall Insulation - external insulating materials to make your home warmer in winter.

and, also renewable green sustainable energy including:

Solar Panels - photovoltaic (PV) systems that provide free electricity from the sun's energy.

Heat Pumps - air or ground source geothermal heat pump systems can be used to heat rooms or provide hot water.

Together these collective measures which will be installed by accredited providers for Insulation will be available to all UK households from 2012. The cost? well the good news is that the improvements will be made available free! The cost of the improvement in your home's energy performance will be paid back through the savings made in your energy bill.

Find out more about the scheme in the Green Deal Guide

Social Housing Associations could cash-in on Green Deal UK

The Government scheme known as the "Green Deal" due to commence late 2012, could be of great interest to the social housing sector in the UK. A large number of Britain's 26 million homes are controlled by Housing Associations and RSL's (Registered Social Landlords). As the sector is "self financing" they would look with great interest with new ways to Finance improvements for their housing stock.

Currently, the UK Government is considering what improvements could be offered to UK households and businesses under the scheme. Insulation will be a key factor for energy saving improvements to housing both in the private and public sectors, this includes Loft Insulation, and Cavity Wall Insulation.

Other measures being considered under the plan include the possibility of encouraging the use of Renewable Energy, this may include microgeneration systems for homes and businesses, for example Solar Panels (PV Solar electricity generation) and small scale Wind Turbines.

If some or all of the above measures were claimed under the plans the Britain's housing in the social sector could benefit by significantly improved energy ratings for property, and a reduction in energy costs for heating and lighting.

Until the Green Deal scheme is officially launched other grants are available for renewable energy projects for domestic homes or small business such as the Feed In Tariff (FITs) cashback plan and the newly introduced Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). A wide selection of local contractors is available covering all areas of the UK for Solar Panels.

The Government scheme known as the "Green Deal" due to commence late 2012, could be of great interest to the social housing sector in the UK. A large number of Britain's 26 million homes are controlled by Housing Associations and RSL's (Registered Social Landlords). As the sector is "self financing" they would look with great interest with new ways to Solar Panels.

Green Deal Low cost finance

The advantage of the Green Deal is that it enables consumers to fund energy efficiency improvements from the value of savings generated throughout the payback period. Because some payback periods may last several years after the investment, consumers will need to pay interest on this money. The golden rule must hold for the total cost of the work (including the measures, labour costs and financing costs) so keeping financing costs to the absolute minimum will be fundamental to the Green Deal’s success. The ability to repay through energy bills is critical to sourcing low-cost finance. Consumers have a relatively low likelihood of defaulting on their energy bills compared to unsecured personal loans or other traditional sources of financing; this means the eventual cost of finance should be lower under the Green Deal than many standard retail finance offers, which cost around 11% even for an average consumer, and considerably more for many consumers. [Source: Bank of England, average of quoted effective annual interest rates for £10,000 personal unsecured loan 1st Jan – 31st Oct 2010 10.7%].

This will also be true for many smaller firms whose cost of corporate borrowing is high. Moreover, the Green Deal is not secured on the property so this is not at risk if repayments are not met. To achieve this lower cost of finance without securing the payments to the property, it is imperative that the Green Deal charge is treated in exactly the same way as any other part of the energy bill. And, of course, one key advantage with Green Deal is that the consumer is able to stop paying once they move out and cease to be the billpayer at the address – unlike personal loans which borrowers have to keep repaying even if they are no longer enjoying the benefits. The Government is in discussions with banks and the investor community regarding the best means of ensuring Green Deal providers can access affordable capital. Source DECC

Have your say about the proposals add your comments below.

For more information regarding the scheme for Green Deal Installers Insulation, heating and renewable energy installation contractors refer to the Green Deal www.greendealadvisersuk.com website.

Green Deal Energy Company Obligation (ECO)

Green Deal finance will not be the only source of support for energy efficiency measures in homes. At the moment, the Government’s principal tools for driving uptake are the energy company obligations Carbon Emissions Reductions Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). The Government has committed to replacing these programmes when they expire at the end of 2012 with a new Energy Company Obligation. The obligation will be restructured to bring it up to date and enable it to function alongside the Green Deal finance market. The ECO will be focused on those households who need support over and above the Green Deal so that everyone can share in the British energy efficiency transformation.

Importantly,it will provide measures which help the most vulnerable low income households, who tend to under-heat their homes, to heat their properties adequately and more affordably. It will also offer support to the expensive to treat properties, such as those with solid walls. The additional ECO support will be able to be combined with Green Deal finance as one package for consumers. Legal powers will exist which enable Government to incentivise energy companies to channel part of their spending towards joint offers (ECO support plus Green Deal finance). However, we expect there to be many natural incentives in place to encourage this approach. We would only use these powers following a review which showed that the companies’ behaviour was leading to consumers losing out, and that using the powers would increase the overall cost-effectiveness of the ECO in achieving carbon savings. Source DECC.

Have your say about the proposals add your comments below.

For more information regarding the scheme for insulation, heating and renewable energy installers refer to the Green Deal Finance www.greendealadvisersuk.com website.

Budget 2011 Woes for Green Investment

The UK Government announced yesterday that some funding would be available for the Green Investment Bank, but nowhere near the industry estimates of £500 billion that is needed to target all property in the UK.

Some funding will be available (around £1bn) to start some projects later this year. The renewable energy sector seems hardest hit with revised tariffs to be introduced under the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, and also the Feed In Tariff, which will particular affect business in the UK.

Solar Green Deal Installers were hoping for a real incentive ahead of the Green Deal Scheme to be launched in 2012, however many were disappointed by the News of delays and lower funding for projects.

Green Deal Solar

The UK government has recently confirmed that renewable energy options will be available under the scheme. These include solar panes, solar thermal hot water, biomass boilers air and ground source heat pumps and wind turbines.

In addition some of these systems already qualify for subsidies and cashback under the Feeed in Tariff scheme, however the further benefits will also include funding under the renewable heat incentive (RHI) tariff scheme.

For further information refer to UK Green Deal www.greendealadvisersuk.com

Fore renewable energy installers refer to:

Renewable Heat Incentive Green Deal providers.

Green Deal Solar - solar panels and PV photovoltaic systems.

Green Deal Finance financial packages and loans for the scheme.