The legal framework for the Green Deal is in place, giving industry the green light that the market can now get started.
In practice it means that Green Deal providers, assessors and installers can start to become authorised, and display the Green Deal Quality Mark, and put in place their systems for delivering assessments to consumers – although consumers won’t be able to sign up to a Green Deal finance plan until January 28, 2013.
The Green Deal will remove the biggest barriers to demand for energy efficiency solutions, opening up the market for more participants and giving people more choice.
From late January, Green Deal Providers will be able to offer Green Deal plans to consumers and begin delivering energy efficiency and heating measures and go on to meet the Government’s ambitions for a major programme of national energy efficiency retrofit.
The Green Deal will empower consumers by giving them new ways of funding home improvements, and empower businesses by enabling them to compete for energy efficiency opportunities in new and innovative ways. It will boost the low carbon economy by supporting up to 60,000 jobs in the insulation sector alone by 2015, up from around 26,000 today.
The Green Deal could see British homes and businesses save enough energy to power one million homes in 2020.
Businesses wanting to find out about the Green Deal for the first time can find out more on the Green Deal Industry pages or contact the Green Deal Oversight & Registration Body.
Last month, the Government revealed the seven cities across England that will receive a share of £12m to help them kick-start the Green Deal in their regions.
The cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield – have put forward ambitious proposals to lower their carbon emissions and this new funding will support their plans to test key elements of the Green Deal.
The Green Deal helps people pay for home improvements like insulation through savings on their energy bills.
Energy Secretary Edward Davey said: “These cities have really ambitious plans to lower their emissions, reduce energy use and help people save money on their bills. I’ve been really impressed by their plans to start testing the Green Deal and transforming our homes and buildings.
“This funding will help them get up and running, and I look forward to seeing a number of properties across whole communities get the energy efficient improvements they need.”
Earlier in the year, the Government announced that cities would be given greater freedoms, powers and tools to help them go for growth.
This new funding will be a key opportunity to test elements of the Green Deal framework like assessment and installation, and provide early feedback. The proposals received include retrofitting properties across whole communities and initial indications suggest that the cities expect to deliver to around 2,500 retrofits to households and non-domestic properties.
All of the cities are also proposing to generate match funding and/or provide direct support themselves.
This work will support future Green Deal activity in these cities, raise awareness of the Green Deal significantly through community engagement and show homes, and provide support to local supply chains including trained Green Deal advisors and registered installers.
