⁄⁄ Green Deal
What is the Green Deal?
The Green Deal it is the government’s flagship energy saving plan to transform the country’s homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run. It is envisaged that people will be able to access up to £10,000 upfront to pay for energy efficiency work, repaying the costs through savings on energy bills. It is intended that there will be extra help for vulnerable people or those living in homes which need more work than Green Deal finance alone will stretch to.
In essence, the Green Deal is a privately financed loan to undertake energy efficiency improvement works and is repaid via payments collected through the dwelling's electricity bill. In order to qualify for a Green Deal loan, an improvement measure must create cost savings each year which are at least as high as the annual loan repayment. This is referred to as the Golden Rule.
The energy efficiency measures are those identified in the 'Recommendations' section of the EPC. When assessing potential savings against the capital cost of energy efficiency the rate of return may vary over time and a different lifespan will apply to different measures (as yet to be announced). There will be some exceptions to this rule and hard to treat dwellings i.e. solid wall construction, will be eligible for further funding available via the Energy Company Obligation which reduces the cost to the householder down to the level available through Green Deal finance.
The Private Rented Sector (PRS) - from April 2016, private residential landlords are unable to refuse a tenant's reasonable request for consent to energy efficiency improvements where a finance package, such as the Green Deal and/or the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), is available. Additionally it is unlawful to rent out a residential or business premise that from April 2018 does not reach a minimum energy efficiency standard (the intention is for this to be set at EPC rating 'E').
Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a mechanism that takes over from previous obligations to reduce carbon emissions (the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP)). The ECO works alongside Green Deal finance offers by targeting appropriate measures at those households likely to need additional support – in particular those containing vulnerable people on low incomes and in hard-to-treat housing. (more info)
