Treasury to approve £200m Green Deal Funding

GDG - Janary 2012

The chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander announced the approval of £200m to be used as an incentive for the public to pick up the Green Deal scheme when it is available for homeowners in October 2012.

Both the business community and NGOs welcomed this announcement as another step towards the successful roll out of the Green Deal scheme.

While the primary goal of the Green Deal scheme is to increase energy efficiency of UK homes and business buildings to reduce the carbon emissions associated with climate change and to reduce energy costs, there are other benefits of the Green deal scheme.

The government estimates that in the long term the scheme, if successful, will create thousands of new jobs and lead to £14b in new investment from the private sector. Additionally, energy companies are mandated to assist with energy improvements for low income households.

The goal of the Green Deal scheme is to have 14m UK households upgraded for energy efficiency, making the UK the European leader in reducing greenhouse emissions.

Experts state that the success of the Green Deal program is dependent on the experience of those homeowners who take up the scheme early, thus there must be great attention to the details of the program so that all goes smoothly.

While the details of how the £200m will be disbursed to early adopters of the scheme, experts agree that using this money for a reduction in the council tax or the stamp duty tax will be a powerful tool to motivate homeowners to take up the Green Deal within the first year. The government is considering this proposal as well as others for the distribution of the funds.