Over 1,800 Green Deal Reports carried out in first month

Since the launch of the Green Deal earlier this year 1,800 Green Deal Reports have been carried out on homes across the UK.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change have unveiled figures to show that 1,803 people have had Green Deal assessments carried out on their properties for  a Green Deal package between the end of January and the end of February.

Edward Davey, Energy and climate change secretary has said that the Green Deal Scheme had got off to "an excellent start".

"We're seeing clear signs of a promising new market gathering momentum," he said. "In little more than a month, there have been 1,803 Green Deal reports and that shows genuine interest from consumers."
"We have created the Green Deal to overhaul our inefficient housing stock and help people keep their homes warm, while also reducing their energy bills. And as the market builds and awareness of the Green Deal increases, I am confident that consumer interest will grow and grow."

The figures for the level of interest in the Green Deal Scheme have been relatively high, no data was released to show the extent to which Green Deal reports are being converted into full Green Deal finance packages.

Ministers are confident that with the Green Deal offering the opportunity for improvement work at no upfront cost, large numbers of households taking out Green Deal Reports will sign up to the full scheme.

The Green Deal to improve a million homes by 2015

By 2015, under the Green Deal, the government expects to have improved one million homes, worth an estimate of £1bn.

Launched January 28th, the Green Deal Scheme is one of the government's flagship energy efficiency programme aimed to improve energy saving measures in homes across the UK. Households can repay long term loans for the improvements, such as Double-glazing and loft insulation, through their energy bills.

The secretary of energy and climate change, Ed Davey, said that through the Green Deal Scheme he hopes to create 30,000 new jobs in the insulation sector alone.

He added: "Just look at the size of the market, almost eight million homes needing solid wall insulation, 5.5 million that haven’t had cavity wall insulation, over six million that could get loft insulation. And actually, this is just the tip of the iceberg: there are over 40 different types of home improvements that can be made under the Green Deal."

Heating and powering the UK’s current housing stock accounts for 40 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions and the Government expects the Green Deal to reduce these by "between a quarter and two-fifths by the middle of the next decade".

"Together, we need to get this right to help people struggling with rising energy costs, to help get the economy moving again and to be part of the climate change solution.

Davey confirmed there are 40 approved Green Deal providers, 75 assessor organisations registered and more than 600 installer organisations already involved in the Green Deal scheme.

Hundreds of Green Deal Reports now complete

According to the governement, interest in the Green Deal scheme launched in January is building, with hundreds of Green Deal Reports already completed. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change has said, 'we are seeing up to 10,000 hits on our online guide and over 3,000 calls to the Energy Saving Advice Service helpline about the Green Deal Scheme each week. 

The Green Deal scheme launched the end of January, aimed to cut energy bills and carbon emissions from buildings by improving energy efficiency making it easy and affordable for both homes and businesses. The improvements can be paid for over time through consumers energy bills and the repayments are set as to not exceed the savings on energy achieved by the improvements on a typical house. 

By 2020 the government hopes to have insulated 14 millions homes through the Green Deal scheme and have said that the Green Deal could kick start a £14 billion market over the next decade creating at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015.

A national advertising campaign to drum up interest of the Green Deal has been launched by the government and so far since the launch awareness has grown by 20%.