Green Deal £24m fund runs out in just a day

The government’s flagship energy efficiency scheme, Green Deal, has seen a £24 million fund that offers householders cash for taking out solid wall insulation has been exhausted in just a day.

The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund aims to offer householders an incentive to improve their home. Energy customers can still apply for up £6 million to make energy efficient home improvements.

Energy and climate change minister Amber Rudd said, “The Green Deal Home Improvement Fund has been incredibly popular – it’s helping thousands of people have warmer homes and more control of their energy bills.

“Although the fund for solid wall insulation is fully allocated, there’s still money available now for a range of other measures and another release of funding is expected in February.”

The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has criticised the news and the processes, stating that it is a “clear illustration of the stop-start policy regime” around energy efficiency. The organisation added government needs to learn from the “ongoing debacle” that long-term drivers are needed for the market, such as linking energy efficiency to stamp duty, to avoid “constant boom and boost”.

Richard Twinn, policy and public affairs officers at the UK-GBC, said, “These piecemeal pots of funding may be generous for householders but create uncertainty to the industry from one week to the next.

“As one of the most expensive measures, it’s no wonder funding for solid wall insulation has proved so popular. Solid walled properties are among the oldest and least energy efficient, and have received little support from other government schemes. This latest gold rush will have been exacerbated by the high profile around the sudden closure of the pervious funding over the summer.”

Photo: Alex Pepperhill via Flickr 

Further reading:

Will the green deal energy efficiency scheme work?

MPs call for new incentives to save the green deal

Green Deal gets the green light

Budget 2014: government must ‘turbocharge’ green deal and energy efficiency efforts

$310bn energy efficiency market saved a continent’s worth of energy