£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 because of rocketing global energy prices, the Government wants to see as many people as possible benefiting when the Green Deal hits the high street.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said: “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. This is an offer that could save early adopters hundreds of pounds and will get the Green Deal off to a flying start.”
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said: “We want the Green Deal to be a game changer for British consumers who’ve been buffeted by global energy prices.
Big injection
“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 it makes 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 the Budget 2011, in which he said that the Government was committed to the success of the Green Deal and will act to encourage and incentivise take-up so that the Green Deal will appeal to households, businesses and prospective providers alike.
Some of the key benefits of the scheme include that 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.
Kick start
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.