Give Green Deal Assessors £85 million says MP

Green Deal assessors should be able to claim the cost of their assessment from allocated Green Deal funds, suggests Alan Whitehead (MP) in his blog last week.

 

The £125 million cash back scheme to encourage the up-take of energy efficiency improvements by property owners and tenants has been offered by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to help launch the Green Deal.

 

Alan Whithead  has suggested using some of this money to pay for any upfront charges customers may face, specifically relating to Green Deal assessments.

 

The cash-back funding is part of the DECC Green Deal scheme designed to assist householders and businesses to become more energy efficient.

 

The cash back has been offered as an incentive alongside the ‘pay as you save’ Green Deal Finance initiative.

 

The first £40 million of this £125m pot has been allocated by the Government to guarantee up to £270 for upgrading to a gas condensing boiler, £50 cash back for draught proofing and £650 for solid wall insulation.

 

There are a number of further measures (15) covered by the cash back scheme with no cap on what households mayt be eligible for, confirms the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

 

"Go ahead with the first £40 million of scorching deals and get things up and running.” commented Mr Whitehead.

 

“But add another small voucher scheme to the one you’ve got for householders – get the assessors to claim back the money for assessments from the rest of the pot: a sort of ‘cashfront’ scheme."

 

"£85 million of the £125 earmarked is still floating around, courtesy of the Chancellor. Now how many assessments at British Gas prices would that cover? Not difficult maths – 850,000 or enough for about seven years’ worth of assessments." calculated the MP.

 

To qualify for Green Deal funding and the cash back scheme, a Green Deal Advisor will make an assessment before a Green Deal Provider can organise for an installer to conduct the works.

 

Green Deal Assessments are may be provided free of charge from some companies (usually subject to taking out a Green Deal Plan), but it appears that some energy firms are planning to charge between £99 and £150. However, in most instances these fees are refundable when work is carried out.

 

Mr Whitehead argues that allowing Advisors to claim these charges from the cash back fund would mean customers can shop around for Assessment quotes.