£200m funding boost for Green Deal
Some £200m of new and additional Government funding has been announced to provide a special time-limited ‘introductory’ offer to boost the early take up of the Government's Green Deal energy efficiency scheme.
With bills rising due to global energy prices, the Government wants to see as many people as possible benefiting when the Green Deal hits the high street next year.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: “I can announce that as part of the Autumn Statement we will provide £200m of funding for new and additional support to enable a special time-limited ‘introductory offer’ for the Green Deal. An offer that could save early adopters hundreds of pounds. A fund to get the Green Deal off to a flying start. One that will work with the Green Deal mechanism and the ECO to motivate thousands of more consumers to take up energy efficiency measures, over the next two years.”
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne (pictured) added: “We want the Green Deal to be a game changer for British consumers who've been buffeted by global energy prices. The earlier you Green Deal your home, the quicker you'll benefit from a warmer and cosier property as well as protect yourself from rocketing prices. This big injection of Government funding delivers on our promise to ensure the Green Deal hits the ground running, and make it as attractive as possible so that people start to benefit from day one.”
The funding announcement follows the commitment made by the Chancellor in Budget 2011, in which he said that the Government was committed to the success of the Green Deal and will act to encourage take-up so that the Green Deal will appeal to households, businesses and prospective providers.
The Green Deal framework will be launched from October 2012. The consultation outlines the three big benefits of the groundbreaking scheme:
· Every British home and business will be able to install packages of energy saving technologies such as insulation at no upfront cost making their property warmer and cosier straight away, with repayments made over time out of the energy savings. Strict standards will be put in place to prevent consumers being ripped off by ‘cowboys’.
· A new requirement on energy companies to provide support with an estimated value of £1.3 billion a year to ensure everyone is able to benefit from the Green Deal – no matter their income or the type of house they live in. Additional help will be available to ensure the fuel poor get better boilers and fix draughty homes while subsidy will also be provided to help tackle homes that are hard to insulate, including solid wall homes.
· The Green Deal is expected to kick start around £14 billion of private sector investment over the next decade, with new safeguards to help small family firms as well as big high street names get involved in the Green Deal. The Green Deal could support at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015.
Further details of how this funding will be used will be announced next year as the Government assesses how best to stimulate early take up.
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